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VACATION CRUISING 



IN 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE 



BAYS. 



^y 



BY 



J.-^t>''ROTHROCK, M.D, 

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



" In brief, I may say that we have had somewhat too much of ' the 
gospel of work.' It is time to preach the gospel of relaxation." 

Herbert Spencer, New York Address. 



ILL US TR A TE 




PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1884. 



l^ 



Copyright, 1884, by J. B. LiPPINCOTT & Co. 



TO 

MY MOTHER 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, 

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HER DEVOTION 

TO THE WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS 

OF HER CHILDREN. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Description of the Yacht, and Reasons for 

THE Cruise 7 

II. Down the Chesapeake and Up the James . • iS 

III. Down the James and Up the Chesapeake . . 50 

IV. Cruising on the Delaware River and Bay . 166 
V. Who Should Go Cruising 238 

VI. T9 Winter-Quarters in the Choptank . . 245 



VACATION CRUISING 



IN 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



CHAPTER I. 

/ 

DESCRIPTION OF THE YACHT, AND REASONS FOR 
THE CRUISE. . 

The plan of spending this vacation on the 
water grew gradually, and at last commended 
itself to my judgment, because it was cheap, full 
of health, and promised as complete a change in 
mode of life as one could hope to obtain. 

Furthermore, as I proposed partly utilizing 
the time by such natural history studies and 
observations as would not consume brain-power 
faster than it was created, some few books, a 
microscope, plant-press, and paper were required. 

7. 



8 VACATION CRUISING IN 

These conditions were most fully met by making 
a small yacht my means of conveyance, my 
home, and my laboratory. It is to be remem- 
bered that study was far from being the primary 
object of the cruise. 

To carry out my plan a strong, nearly new 
boat was purchased, — not a racing yacht, in which 
everything was sacrificed to speed, but a solid, 
" well-fastened" little sloop, whose qualities were 
safety "first, comfort second, and some speed at the 
tail-end of a long list of good points. 

This boat, originally the " Varuna," of Bridge- 
ton (New Jersey), was renamed '* Martha," for 
reasons which were entirely satisfactory to my 
little boys (who were my sailing companions part 
of the time) and to myself. The custom-house 
papers gave thirty feet long, eleven feet beam, 
and three and a half feet deep as the dimensions 
of the little craft.* 



* Much greater depth and less beam in proportion to length 
are now regarded as important elements of safety, and doubtless 
truly so ; but I was obliged to have a boat whose depth would 
not prevent my entering harbors where I particularly desired to 
go. An old waterman expressed his opinion of my boat by 
saying, " You can't drown her." 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. g 

No more sail was carried than was absolutely- 
required. The spars were shorter and stronger 
than were usual in sloops of her size ; and, as 
further security against a capsize, more than a 
ton of pig iron was placed and fastened as low 
down inside as we could get it. Six hundred 
to a thousand pounds more outside on her keel 
would have added to her sailing qualities, though 
without this the boat gave no indication of un- 
steadiness. 

Before the vacation began every seam had been 
most carefully gone over and made tight ; the 
standing rigging was newly set up, and every 
cord of the running rigging was either new, or as 
good as new. Our ground tackle was two power- 
ful holding anchors and plenty of manila rope to 
swing to. Cleats and reefing gear were all in per- 
fect order. Not once during the entire summer 
were we endangered or incommoded from want 
of preparation of anything we should have had 
ready, but which was not ready. 

A good aneroid barometer held a place so 
conspicuous that it must be noticed, and thus we 
were left without excuse if not forewarned of 
coming danger by storm. Compass, charts, lead 



lO VACATION CRUISING IN 

and line, side-lights, anchor-light, and cabin-light 
completed the details that contemplated safety. 

Next came comfort. First of all, every avenue 
to the cabin was guarded by wire mosquito-net- 
ting, — so well guarded that we absolutely escaped 
all torment from these minute flying fiends. We al- 
ways kept the sliding cabin windows open. Hence 
we had the full benefit by day and by night of 
whatever " air was going." The " bunks" were 
large enough for men of moderate dimensions to 
sleep comfortably in, with tossing room besides. 
The rule that all bedding must be frequently aired 
was religiously adhered to. 

Food. — Canned corn, tomatoes, and baked 
beans, with rice, oatmeal, prunes, good pilot-bread, 
ham and the best breakfast bacon, tea, coffee, 
and sugar, I purchased for the season at wholesale 
price. Fresh fruits and meats were obtained as 
required. If there was lack of luxurious living, 
there was no want of nutritious plain food. The 
medicine-case was well supplied, — not that it was 
needed much for the inmates of the boat, but 
because, in the out-of-the-way places where we 
went, it often enabled me to relieve some suffering 
fellow. There is a comfort in giving help without 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. n 

hope of reward, or without possibility of it, save 
such mental approval as a pure charity brings to 
the giver. A little of this does go a long, long 
way into after-life, softening one's own sorrows, 
and brightening his own joys. Hence, then, by 
all means, a medicine-chest. 

Another most important article was added — 
a small, cheap camera for dry-plate photogra- 
phy. One may now be had at a price which 
is within reach of every tourist, and nothing is 
easier than to become an adept in the use of the 
instrument. Let me suggest, however, that each 
tourist contemplating a prolonged trip purchase 
enough plates at once for his use, and that he 
fairly test their sensitiveness before leaving his 
base of supplies. I have no complaints to make 
because a large proportion of the plates of a well- 
known dealer failed to give the results I had 
anticipated, and which I had always obtained 
before from his supplies. The fault was my own, 
that I had not tried the lot before starting out. 
We can hardly as yet guess how important a 
factor this amateur photography is to be in the 
book-making of the future. Neither can we meas- 
ure its possible influence in opening minds to the 



12 VACATION CRUISING IN 

quiet beauty or the sublime grandeur which our 
land everywhere possesses. To judge what its 
possible effect may be a century hence, study 
what it has already done for men — and women 
too — who, before they became amateurs, had no 
appreciation of the fact that a tree or a rock could 
have either individuality or attractiveness. With- 
out wishing to be over-enthusiastic, or be re- 
garded as filled with the zeal of a neophyte, I 
can hardly avoid counting this art in as one of the 
humanizing forces of the times. 

Reading Matter. — What so good as some of 
iCingsley's writings ? Real enough to charm and 
invigorate the mind, suggestive enough to open 
whole realms to any student who has the capacity 
for observation or for generalization, yet without 
the details with which some authors drag their 
readers down to the level of those everlasting 
figures. There is a mental condition which grows 
out of constantly contemplating ratio and per- 
centage, which is dangerous, because the victim 
always fails to note that the sunshine is leaving 
his soul, and that, as his facts and his averages pile 
themselves higher and higher, his own inner self 
is being dwarfed. Who of all writers could so fitly 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 13 

fill the little space left for reading matter as 
Charles Kingsley ? Of course there were, besides, 
the ordinary scientific and yachting manuals. 

One more element remained to be considered, 
which, if not under the head of comfort, comes 
under the more important one of health, — I mean 
cleanliness. Nothing so disturbs rest as the 
thought that as one sleeps visitors, demons of 
the night, children of filth, are feasting upon his 
blood ; or that some disease-germ, vigorous in 
the absence of fumigation, is nursing in his veins 
a progeny that shall work him unknown harm. 
This bar to bliss when cruising is often intimately 
associated with a hired vessel. But then there 
could be no excuse for it on board one's own 
yacht, so I determined that, inside and out, the 
vessel should be cleaned every day. This rule 
was observed during the entire cruise, save for 
two weeks very early in the season. The yacht 
was also pumped out, washed out, and fumigated 
on the least suspicion that anything might be 
wrong, or on the bare idea that peace of mind or 
health of body could be in the least degree sub- 
served by any additional precaution. 

And now, — 

2 



14 VACATION CRUISING IN 

" Over the rail 

My hand I trail, 
Within the shadow of the sail ; 

A joy intense, 

The cooling sense 
Glides down my drowsy indolence." — Drifting. 



Note. — During the summer I had the pleasure of having 
with me, each for a short time, the following gentlemen : Messrs. 
George Johnson, William Butler, Jr., James Sellers, Professor 
G. M. Philips, and Mr. James Bull. My two little boys were 
with me several weeks. So that not the least among the ''de- 
lights of yachting is the privilege of having friends share what- 
ever of pleasure there may be in it. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



15 



CHAPTER II. 

DOWN THE CHESAPEAKE AND UP THE JAMES. 

Friday afternoon, June 9, I met the " Martha" 
at Delaware City, whence we were to go through 
the canal to the Chesapeake Bay. Of course it 
was an unlucky day on which to begin a long 
trip, though I am bound to declare that, looking 
back on the events of the cruise, I do not see 
just where the misfortunes came in. The day was 
exceedingly warm, and a dead calm rested upon 
the waters. The glare of the sun was almost 
intolerable to the eyes ; though I must say here 
that this intolerance of the bright reflection 
ceased in a few days. 

The hours from ten, when I reached the place, 
until three, when the yacht came into the lock, 
passed away very slowly. The local industry 
which appeared to be most thriving at that time 
was sturgeon-catching. Two or three antiquated 
river sloops and schooners lay alongside the wharf. 



1 5 VACATION CRUISING IN 

The odor arising from them told plainly enough 
what their vocation was. But the crews of these 
sturgeon-boats revealed most unexpectedly a 
fondness for the beautiful. The air of the town 
was filled with the perfume of roses, which 
were then blooming in profusion. Sturdy, oil- 
odored sturgeon-fishermen wandered through the 
town with huge clusters of roses, giving you as 
they passed the mingled perfume of the rose and 
the fish in the same inhalation. This unlooked- 
for susceptibility, however, was not so strange 
as it was to discover that the place where the 
roses came from was a bar-room filled with a 
noisy crowd. The roses and the rye were dis- 
pensed over the same bar. 

The " Martha" entered the lock at Delaware 
City, as has been said, at three in the afternoon. 
By four we were hitched on to the steam-tug 
"Swallow," and long before dark were through 
the canal. When constructed, this canal must 
have been one of the great internal improve- 
ments of that age. The wonder is, however, 
that in spite of it Baltimore did not filch away 
from Philadelphia more of the grain crop which 
was grown on the Pennsylvania hill-sides. It is 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, 



17 



doubtless well known who the moving spirits of 
the enterprise were, and also what their object 
was in cutting the State of Delaware through. 
One can readily understand how, in the interest 
of its great city, Pennsylvania could well afford 
to have made the canal, if necessary, in order 
that her own grain crop at least might be handled 
in and exported from her own chief port, rather 
than to have gone abroad from another State. 

As a rule, there is no inspiration in canal navi- 
gation, or certainly few people find it. For all this 
it was a really enjoyable trip across from bay 
to bay. Our transit was made in the delicious 
cool of the evening, after a frightfully hot day. 
The adjectives used are strictly intentional and 
premeditated, for the sufficient reason that they 
express more truly than figures can how the 
noonday and the evening temperature affected us. 
I do not know where the mercury would have 
stood, because I never carry a thermometer when 
on a Southern cruise in summer, for it is simply 
exasperating to know just how much heat we are 
enduring. It is far more comfortable not to have 
the exact figures ; they always intensify the sun's 

rays. In the canal we enjoyed the scenery and 
6 2* 



1 8 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the rich perfume from the magnolia and the fox- 
grape. I would really quite like to spend a week 
in working (botanizing) along the banks of the 
canal. There is a luxuriant, and apparently a 
very varied, flora in the region. 

On Saturday morning our patience was almost 
exhausted before we were taken in tow by the tug 
for the Elk River. The master of the tug did not 
care to venture out so long as the fog remained 
dense. Probably he was entirely right, because 
until eight o'clock objects distant more than a 
hundred yards were shut out from view ; though 
the captain of a large Crisfield schooner did not 
think so, and, hoisting his sails, he started to 
work his way down to the Elk. However, — 
" luck in leisure," — we passed him very soon 
when the tug did start. 

As we entered the Elk the fog cleared away 
entirely, and the glorious water view opened 
before us to the southward. I never look from 
above the Bohemian River down toward the bay 
that this panorama does not impress me. It 
does so more and more the oftener I look at and 
enjoy it. To the south there is no visible limit. 
The bold, timber-covered bluffs east or west, with 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. iq 

navigable rivers coming in between, run so that 
the horizon widens as one looks south. It is a 
scene characterized neither by grandeur nor yet 
by quiet beauty alone^ The combination of 
water, of plains, and of hills in just the proper 
proportion is what completes this perfect picture, 
—-so perfect, too, that each season brings its own 
special beauty to the view. Back from the water 
a little distance, on higher ground, may be seen 
the comfortable houses of the farmers. Without 
indicating the presence of great wealth, the whole 
appearance of the region is one of thrift and 
abundance.. There is no sign of the ** take-it-as- 
it-come^* spirit which is so common south of An- 
napolis ; the air of the place rather speaks, " Make 
the most of it.[' Turkey Point, high and tfmber- 
clad^ the location of an important light4iouse. 
stands like a sentmel between the Elk and the 
wide^ shoal mouth of the Susquehanna River» 

Probably one should say as little harsh in char- 
acter about wind or weather as possible when 
cruising for he can alter neither one nor the 
other- neither does it indicate a well-ordered 
mind to find fault with that which cannot be 
helped^ and which^ even if we could alter, would 



20 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



probably be the worse for the interference. Still, 
as a simple inquiry, it may be allowed us to ask, 
— how many days of the summer season does the 
southern-bound navigator find head-winds to con- 
tend with on the upper, or indeed the whole, 
Chesapeake Bay? 

By four in the afternoon we entered what is 
known to fishermen, oystermen, and others of 
aquatic tastes as Still Pond Harbor. It lies just 
south of where the Sassafras River empties, or 
rather opens, into the Chesapeake. That which 
is taken for the harbor generally is but a deep 
indentation or bay opening to the west, and 
hence, with a wind from the same direction, is 
merely a trap from which there can be hardly an 
escape, and in which one must ride out a sea 
backed by the width of the bay. In the October 
gale, some years ago, there were several " oyster- 
pungies" lost in this very harbor; so, at least, I 
was informed. I had good reason for knowing 
that there was one such unfortunate there as late 
as 1879, for, entering the harbor about dark in 
the evening with the schooner " Alice M.," we 
struck fairly upon the wreck, — fortunately for us, 
however, with no evil results. Not a sign marked 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 2 1 

the presence of this dangerous obstacle save the 
" wake" or ripple made by the wreck itself. 
, The Still Pond is an offshoot or an inland pro- 
longation of the harbor, and with which it is con- 
nected by an inlet say seventy feet wide and twice 
or thrice as long. That we found it and came 
to anchor in it, as but few yachtsmen do, I am 
indebted entirely to the sagacity and the pluck 
of " Lew," to whom, by the way, I have not yet 
introduced the reader. 

" Lew" is a comely, open-hearted yachtsman, 
of say twenty-one, whom I was fortunate enough 
to secure as assistant before I left the Delaware. 
He is experienced, companionable, and trust- 
worthy; and I can only hope that in future I 
may never meet with a worse man or a less re- 
liable man than Lewis Seaman. It was through 
him, as I have said, that we found the way into 
Still Pond. I had been in the harbor before, and 
had not found the pond. He had not been there 
before, but did find it. That is just the difference. 
He noticed the inlet and saw how rapidly the tide 
ran out, and at once reasoned there must be a 
large body of water behind the inlet to force a 
current through with such velocity. 



22 VACATION CRUISING IN 

So we headed for the inlet, and gradually saw 
how it increased in size as we approached, until, 
when in its mouth, the pond opened to our view; 
but the current, which suggested the pond, well- 
nigh prevented our reaching it. The wind died 
away as we approached the inlet, and when we 
were in it, ceased entirely. So the anchor was 
dropped, and then " Lew," taking a rope over his 
shoulder, went ashore. I hoisted the anchor on 
board, and *' Lew" towed the yacht through into 
the mouth of the pond. East and west the land- 
locked, beautiful pond spread out before us. 
Every one who is fond of the water has some 
ideal harbor which suggests perfect safety, easy 
landing on attractive shores, and what more 
each must add for himself to complete the pic- 
ture. To me, when longing for a week on the 
water, this one. Still Pond, is ever uppermost in 
my mind. I often plan a whole vacation spent 
there. There is room enough for a large fleet in 
the pond, but, unfortunately, the bar across the 
mouth prevents vessels drawing more than three 
feet of water from entering. My chart shows on 
the southern shore of the harbor another arm, 
much like this on the north, but I have never 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



23 



explored it In the interest of humanity, it is to 
be hoped that means may be taken to deepen the 
channel into this Still Pond ; for it is doubly hard 
that men should perish, as in that October gale, 
when there is an absolutely secure anchorage in 
full sight. 

Considered from another stand-point, this place 
is one of those glorious surprises which so often 
strike a person cruising in the Chesapeake. Not 
only did the beauty of the spot take possession 
of me as soon as it was disclosed, but within 
half an hour after we had dropped anchor, Lew's 
net had caught all the fish we needed for supper. 
Had the Pilgrim Fathers landed here instead of 
where they did, it is doubtful whether their piety 
and importance would have allowed them to stop 
short of the belief that a spot so delightful and 
so prolific was created specially for them, and 
the work of Indian extermination might have 
been prosecuted with intense zeal. Pike, yellow 
neds, perch, catfish! Surely such a bill of fare 
might well awaken the enthusiasm of any- man 
with a yachtsman's appetite, even if he were ab- 
solutely devoid of his sporting proclivities. 

Every hour of day or night appeared to me to 



24 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



have brought some peculiar sound. In the morn- 
ing we had catbirds, blackbirds, kingfishers, and 
fish-hawks ; at noon, a family of ,crows, young 
and old, kept up a most persistent and vigorous 
cawing. Whether the last was a; lesson in elocu- 
tion for the junior members of the family I can- 
not say, though there appeared to be some object 
and some method in it. At night a legion of 
frogs gave us a prolonged high-toned serenade. 

Close along the northern shore there is a clean, 
gravelly bottom, and a somewhat greater depth 
of water than a little farther out, where, on top 
of the gravel, a slimy, dark, oozy mud is depos- 
ited. The tide at that point appeared to flow 
more rapidly along-shore. Examining the mud 
microscopically, we found much decaying, loamy 
matter, some very fine sand, and a number of the 
silicious skeletons of diatoms. I never saw so 
many, or such industrious fish-hawks. All day 
long we could hear them coming down with a 
splash into the water. Of course an occasional 
bald eagle appeared, to exact his contribution 
from the hawks. Even the crows seem to be 
unusually aquatic in their habits here. I saw one 
go down into the water almost as recklessly as 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 2$ 

the fish-hawks did. High grounds and low 
grounds were close by our anchorage, and we 
found the yellow clover, the small verbena, the 
blue-flag, and the mountain-laurel all within a 
stone's throw of where we lay. 

This was not the first time that I have won- 
dered why men will sail without a barometer on 
board. We had a fine thunder-storm, and from 
our point of safety could enjoy it. The heavy 
thunder and vivid lightning and puffy squalls 
would have combined with the rain, which came 
down in force, to make sailing in the bay unpleas- 
ant enough. When we anchored, there was not 
a cloud in sight; but for all this the barometer 
warned us to prepare. We did so. There is 
always more or less danger in sailing in the 
bays in small craft, and it is simply common 
sense to take the lesser risk which the barometer 
affords. 

Monday, the i ith, we were off by six in the 

morning. It was natural that we should leave 

Still Pond with regret. We had no reason to 

anticipate finding other harbors both as safe and 

as pleasant. Let me say to other yachtsmen that, 

in going out the inlet, back-flaws and baffling 
B 3 



26 VACATION CRUISING IN 

winds may very often, if not usually, be expected 
as the bluff, where the pond narrows into the inlet, 
is passed. Sometimes these uncertain elements 
cause no little trouble in " working ship" where 
the channel is so narrow. 

Once out in the bay the little " Martha" en- 
countered the full force of a strong head-wind, and 
fairly danced on the waves like a cork. White- 
caps were forming on all sides. The wind was 
puffy and uncertain, — now almost a calm, when the 
boat would lose her headway and lie like a log ; 
then in an instant a violent puff would strike the 
sail, knocking the yacht down, rail to the water, 
before she could gather speed enough to make 
her mind the helm. We now appreciated the full 
value of the fixed iron ballast. More would have 
been better, as the excessive buoyancy was a dis- 
advantage in these short, chopping seas. Ballasted, 
as the boat had been the previous year, with sand, 
most of which was hardly below the water-line, 
such sailing must have been dangerous in the 
extreme. The amazing stupidity of many yacht- 
owners is absolutely a marvel. Most of those 
with whom I spoke before placing the iron in my 
vessel were rather inclined to tender their sym- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



27 



pathy that I could be stupid enough to buy iron 
when I could pick up sand or stones. The reason 
why I did not buy more and place it where it 
belonged, outside in the form of an iron keel, was 
because it involved an expense greater than I felt 
at liberty to incur. The worst fault was not 
lack of stiffness, but great buoyancy. Lew re- 
marked, in a quiet way, "This boat takes the 
trouble to go right over the tops of all these 
waves." So it was ; for sometimes she actually 
appeared to jump half her length out of the water. 
Three miles ahead we sighted another point, 
one which marked a tempting harbor. The tide 
had turned and was against us ; this, with adverse 
winds and waves, decided us to put into the har- 
bor, — Worton's Creek. The attempt to beat down 
to Annapolis involved a long, hard day's work, 
with no pleasure whatever in the sail. Giving the 
yacht more sheet, we headed for the creek, en- 
tering it in good style, flying past a party of 
fishermen who were running out an immensely 
long seine. Once fairly in, we sighted two arms, 
one of which ran northward, opening into a con- 
siderable expanse of water, the other and more in- 
viting one extending toward the south. We beat 



28 VACATION CRUISING IN 

into the -latter about a mile, and dropped oui 
anchor opposite to Buck Neck Landing. Shortly 
afterward the steamer "Van Corlear," from Balti- 
more, came in and afforded us a chance to send 
off our mail. 

For a while the place appeared to be alive, 
carriages thronging the wharves to receive those 
coming, and to help away those who were leaving. 
But they departed with the steamer, and in half 
an hour the place resumed its wonted quietness. 
Dreaminess appeared to rule the hours. For the 
rest of the day hardly a sign of life was visible. 
I made several attempts to purchase some rope 
which I needed on the yacht, but found the mer- 
chant was taking a nap, or had gone visiting, or 
was somewhere else than in his store. Late in 
the evening the desired purchase was made. The 
law of compensation, it is evident, runs through 
the whole universe outside of ourselves. I am con- 
vinced now that it at last decides the individual 
destiny. Were it not for some such law, men at 
Buck Neck Landing might live forever, or cer- 
tainly as long as the patriarchs. The world's 
troubles do not appear to concern them, the 
world's thoughts never agitate them ; come peace, 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



29 



come war, nerve-tissues and myosin are renewed 
as fast as expended, and but for some beneficent 
disease or accident men never would leave there 
to stay even in Paradise. The place would be 
overcrowded. With fish in the waters and fruit 
on the land, these kind-hearted, generous, and 
honest inhabitants would remain, in quiet and in 
sunshine, until they multiplied enough to wear 
their clothing out by jostling against each other. 

There was a solitary living exception to what 
I have said, visible from meridian until four p.m. 
A good-natured colored boy amused himself by 
the hour sculling a heavy " yawl-boat" over to the 
western side of the creek ; then, hoisting a broad 
board in the bow for a sail, he threw himself 
down in the stern of the boat and scudded be- 
fore the wind back to the eastern shore. He was 
full of the languid poetry of drifting; his whole 
soul was saturated with it, though it never found 
expression. The solitary reader of his Muse was 
myself Happiness is a purely relative term. 
This, of course, is a platitude. But who of all 
mankind ever come to fully appreciate the 
breadth of even so plain a thing, and to rest con- 
tent with the present ? I have in mind now two 



30 VACATION CRUISING IN 

who illustrate the extremes. One of them is that 
young negro. He came alongside, and I gave 
him a bucket of preserved prunes, which neither 
Lew nor myself could tolerate. He received 
them with open eyes and mouth. If he only 
knew how little generosity there was in that gift, 
we would suffer in his estimate. He soon be- 
came too full of happiness on preserved prunes 
even to enjoy the pleasure of crossing the creek 
behind his board-sail. We saw him on the other 
side, with his feet hanging over the boat and re- 
ceiving the caress of the water, just as his face, 
upturned to the sun, was comforted by the su- 
perheated rays. An hour later Pompey came 
alongside again. For the gift of a cigar he con- 
sented to have his " picture tuk." 

Marked on the lower part of the store building 
I found the statement, " High-water mark. Sep- 
tember 17, 1876." It was gratifying to obtain 
the fact, not only because it was a fact and indi- 
cated a storm-tide several feet higher than com- 
mon, but because it evinced interest in an unusual 
event. However, two months later I should have 
seen busy times on that very quiet wharf, when 
the peach crop, one great interest of the region. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 31 

was being shipped. We went ashore during the 
evening, and enjoyed the hospitality and conver- 
sation of one of the near residents. 

Annapolis. — Tuesday, the 12th, we left our 
anchorage on the last of the ebb tide, and headed 
south for Annapolis. We hoped by making an 
early start to reach our destination in spite of 
the adverse and heavy weather. So we did, but it 
was at the cost of vast patience and severe buffet- 
ing. As the crow flies, the distance would have 
been considerably less than thirty miles. In a 
fair wind the run would have been a very short 
one ; but in a small boat, with wind and tide both 
against us, it consumed a great part of the day. 
Yet it appeared that we were not much worse 
off than others who were in sight and bound the 
same way. Harbor after harbor was passed, until 
by two o'clock p.m. it was clear that, even with 
the odds against us, reaching our destination 
was merely a question of time and perseverance. 
Hoping to avoid the force of the waves, we left 
the eastern shore and started for the other side. 
To my surprise, where I expected to find a shel- 
tered shore, the water was almost or quite as 
rough as the one we had left. The difference in 



32 VACATION CRUISING IN 

color between the deep-green water and the yel- 
lowish hue in shoaler places was strikingly ap- 
parent. From Bodkin Point, down along the 
western shore, the beat appeared almost intermi- 
nable. We had fully decided at one time on an- 
choring in Magotha Harbor. On maturer reflec- 
tion we both concluded it would be just a little 
unmanly to remain there over-night, when a 
friend and prospective shipmate was waiting for 
us in Annapolis. It did appear, though, as if we 
never could get by Sandy Point. " It shoals" a 
long, long way out. Then, too, fellow-yachtsmen, 
be advised : do not attempt, as we did, to go in- 
side of the buoys off Greenbury Light when it is 
blowing a gale, unless you know the ground too 
well to make a mistake. The " Martha" tried 
the experiment, and, though she did drag over, 
there was nothing at all to spare. It is very try- 
ing to keep outside, especially when the wind is 
against you, but probably you will find it best to 
do so. 

We received a lesson in naval architecture when 
crossing from the eastern to the western shore. 
My boat, being the usual model of the Dela- 
ware Bay, — broad and short, — was at her very 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 33 

worst in the head-wind and " choppy sea" of the 
Chesapeake. She labored severely, with lee rail 
under (for we were carrying whole sail, though the 
wind whistled through the rigging), or rose over 
the waves until it appeared as if more than half the 
hull was out of water. Alongside of us came a 
Chesapeake " bug-eye," * of light draught, but long 
and narrow. We saw her start from Tolchester 
Beach, and creep up on us swiftly and surely. We 
were laboring ; she was moving along without ef- 
fort, going not only faster, but working more to 
the windward. At the very time this forty-feet 
bug-eye was leaving us, we ourselves were distanc- 
ing a large coasting schooner. The bug-eye ca- 
reened over very little, went easily through the 
water, made no pounding or splashing, and looked 
almost into the wind. Thus she proved herself 
as possessing every requisite of a first-class sea- 
goer. It is doubtful if she drew more than two 
feet and a half of water; it is much more prob- 
able that she drew less. She certainly did not 



* The term "bug-eye" appears to be a corruption of " buck- 
eye," which name was at first given from the auger-holes on either 
side of the bow, and through which the cable ran. 



34 VACATION CRUISING IN 

have ballast enough to sink her if she had filled 
with water. These were all most desirable features 
in a small boat. But here was a direct violation of 
what we have been taught were cardinal features 
in small-boat construction, — shallowness and small 
beam on the one hand, and great length, with no 
ballast, and shallowness on the other. The present 
ruling fashion is that a small boat shall be at least 
four times as long as broad, and that she shall 
carry, say, half her tonnage, or more, deep down in 
the water, in the shape of a lead or iron keel. It 
is certain that a boat built after this, the English 
cutter model, may " knock down ;" but it is cer- 
tain she will not stay down. Unless she fills, she 
must right again. I believe that, so far as our 
American sloop and the English cutter have come 
into fair trial, the cutter has proven the better 
boat, — safer and faster. I am not sure what the 
result of a contest between the cutter and the 
bug-eye would be. From what I have seen of 
the latter class of boats in the Chesapeake, I am 
most strongly prepossessed in their favor. The 
model of this nondescript is peculiar. Probably 
the light cedar gunning-skiff which does duty as 
a yawl-boat for us is as nearly an exact imitation 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



35 



of the bug-eye model as one can imagine. Now, 
that same skiff, with sharp bow and stern, such as 
the bug-eye was, gave us, when we towed it down 
to Annapolis through heavy seas, a most astonish- 
ing illustration of sea-worthiness. Every vessel we 
met had her yawl swung up, or on deck. Yet our 
yawl rode so easily that the line by which we 
towed her was seldom stretched, and not a tin- 
cupful of water worked into her during the whole 
day. The best statement I can give of the bug- 
eye model is one furnished to Forest and Stream 
by " Talbot." Here it is. The accompanying 
illustration will give a general idea of the appear- 
ance of the craft. It should be added, however, 
that the smaller vessels of this class have all their 
sails triangular in shape. 

CHESAPEAKE BUG-EYES. 

Editor Forest and Stream : 

The inquiry contained in your paper concerning the bug-eye, 
as it is called by our oystermen, is a step in the right direction, 
and Mr. Roosevelt can obtajn any information he may desire from 
Captain James L. Harrison, Tilghman's Island P. O., Talbot 
County, Maryland. Captain Harrison is the builder of the fastest 
boat of this type on the Chesapeake, If this model is peculiar to 
this section, there remains in store a treat for all who adopt it in 



36 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



other waters, where speed and safety are desired. The boat is 
not perfectly flat-bottomed, as Mr. Roosevelt supposes, but built so 
as to combine light draught and carrying capacity. The centre- 
board is constant, also single head-gear. The jigger is always 



CHESAPEAKE BUG EYE. 

Stepped so as to trim sheets to traveller on deck. Many of them 
are built with round sterns with overhang, as in the cutter. 
Schooner rig prevails to great extent, but adds nothing to speed. 
These boats are extremely fast, and brave the heaviest gales of 
our winter. Larger vessels often capsize, but the bug-eye never. 
I enclose you the dimensions of the boat thought to be the fast- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



37 



est in the whole fleet, with a sketch showing rig: length, fifty 
feet; beam, twelve and one-half feet; dead rise, one and one- 
half inches to the foot; draught, light, three feet; centreboard, 
twelve feet. 

Talbot. 

It appears from the above, especially when one 
remembers the sharp-sterned "pinkies" of half 
a century ago on the New England coast, and 
which were so remarkable for sea-going qualities, 
that in estimating all the good lines in a boat- 
model we must probably give considerable im- 
portance to the shape of the stern. Indeed, some 
assert that the shape of the latter is of as much 
importance as that of the bow. I have a half-con- 
viction that, taken all in all, these same bug-eyes 
are as fast and as safe as many of our renowned 
yachts of the same size. 

The evolution or mode of development of the 
bug-eye is interesting. So far as now appears, 
the whole fleet of them grew out of the equally 
famous Chesapeake log canoe, — " kunners," as the 
negroes and some of the illiterate whites called 
them. These originally were made from three 
large pine logs, which were neatly and strongly 
jointed together by three dressed faces, so that 



38 VACATION CRUISING IN 

one made the bottom and the other two the sides. 
These were hollowed out and finely shaped out- 
side. Being nothing but wood, they were of course 
unsinkable, besides being extremely strong, tight, 
and durable. Then two long masts, which had 
a most wonderful rake, were added. A jib was, 
or was not reckoned part of the outfit. These 
Chesapeake canoes did their work so well that 
they became the popular small boat of the region, 
and to increase their size and carrying capacity 
the largest available logs were used. Still, the 
limit in size did not appear to have been reached, 
and the model is essentially preserved in boats 
now framed and planked up in the ordinary ship 
style. These are the latest product of Chesapeake 
naval genius, and are the popular bug-eyes. The 
small modifications of the canoe type which they 
have introduced are somewhat more " dead rise" 
and more swell amidships. It may be well for our 
yacht constructors, before absolutely and finally 
adopting the deep English type as the highest 
product and most suitable vessel for our waters, 
to examine very carefully into the claims of these 
nondescripts. We offer no opinion ; that must be 
formed after full, fair trial. Chesapeake naval- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 3^ 

constructive genius cannot well be despised. It 
has too famous a place in the history of the Balti- 
more clipper, which a generation ago so aston- 
ished the world. To my mind the secret of their 
wonderful stiffness remains unsolved. Oystermen 
say they will live out a storm longer than any 
other model on the bay. There is no other style 
growing more in favor with these men than the 
bug-eye. Hence, then, a fair trial, if for no other 
reason than to test the value of an American type. 

A day could not be spared, on our way down, 
to see the points of interest in and about Annapolis 
without a serious break in our plans. However, as 
we found a friend (Lieutenant Bull, of the navy), 
the break was made, and the time spent in the 
grounds of the Naval Academy, under his guid- 
ance, was a more than sufficient compensation for 
waiting. 

When we left, on the morning of the 14th, we 
were comforted by the assurance, received the 
day before, that we might expect head-winds going 
down the bay about nine days out of ten at that 
season. However, thanks to the squall of the 
previous evening, the wind had hauled around to 
the north, and we had a fresh breeze following us 



40 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



all day. So that, after a run of ninety miles, we 
dropped our anchor for the night in Smith's Creek, 
a little offshoot from the Potomac. The small 
number of sails we saw in making the run was 
a surprise, bearing no comparison to what we ex- 
pected, or to what we should certainly have seen 
had we been on the Delaware. Still, it is hard 
to think that Baltimore, with its superb water- 
approaches, will long lag in the race. 

The little bay, for such it was, in which we 
had anchored was completely landlocked, and not 
more than two hundred yards wide; yet it con- 
tained water enough for a good-sized vessel. This 
abundance of superior harbors may be considered 
as a peculiarity in which the Chesapeake is pre- 
eminent. This, along with the navigable waters, 
estuaries, and rivers intersecting the land in all 
directions, has in one sense retarded the develop- 
ment of the country, — i.e., by making water com- 
munication so easy and so extensive, it has in so 
far superseded the necessity for roads. The sail- 
ing canoe is the ordinary means of travel from 
place to place along the shores. This retarding 
effect was observed even by the early colonial 
writers. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 41 

June the 15th still gave us, in the morning, 
a promising northerly wind, and we started out 
early, hoping to make a big run to the south- 
ward that day. It was, however, four p.m. when we 
reached Milford Haven, on the Piankatank River. 
Our intention had been to push on down to Mob- 
jack Bay, but the weakening wind warned us to 
seek a harbor while we could have daylight to do 
it in. No rule can be regarded as invariable when 
one's doings depend upon the uncertainties of 
wind and weather. It was my desire, however, 
always to be at anchor by three in the afternoon. 
This allowed a turn on shore to see what could 
be found, and gave us a chance to take in all 
the surroundings, and decide what we would do 
in any emergency which might arise during the 
night. 

Milford Haven is still another of those surprises 
which constantly greet one yachting along the 
western shore of the Chesapeake. Now, as else- 
where, we were landlocked for the night. The 
entrance, which at first appeared too small to 
admit a vessel, widens out into a broad, deep 
mouth, and inside the harbor which it leads to 
a whole fleet of canoes and some good-sized 



42 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



schooners lay. During the evening spent there 
Mr. J. and Lew occupied themselves catching 
crabs. Half an hour of the sport was sufficient 
to cover the deck with vigorous pugnacious 
specimens, who the night through manifested 
their excessive vitality by threatening any one 
audacious enough to leave the cabin in the dark 
hours. However, this was more than compensated 
for when we came to enjoy them cooked. There 
is a difference in flavor of crabs, just as there is 
in that of oysters ; and for both Milford Haven is 
justly famous. Cape May "goodies," served up 
with the oysters and crabs, make one even now, 
after the lapse of several months, remember our 
anchorage in the Piankatank with feelings of com- 
plete satisfaction. 

There was a source of annoyance in our charts. 
These were all that we could desire out in the 
deep water, but along-shore, in water where we 
thought we could go, they gave us no informa- 
tion. The score of little bays and harbors that one 
" might make," if only his chart would indicate the 
depth of water or show him the way in, were a 
constant aggravation, because we knew there were 
such, and such quiet places, too, as we most de- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



43 



sired to enter with camera in hand. Chart-makers, 
we shoal-water yachtsmen, we owners of very 
small craft, do beseech you to give the channel 
and the depth of water into every small harbor in 
the Chesapeake. Our experience at the mouth of 
the Potomac was provoking. The chart led us to 
put in there because of a small safe harbor which 
was indicated ; but we searched in vain for it, and 
were obliged to make a considerable run out of 
our way to find a secure anchorage. 

June i6th found us astir by sunrise, which this 
season of the year means by about half-past four. 
We thought ourselves early risers, but the par- 
tridges were up before us, and we could hear their 
musical whistle from all sides. Is it so that there 
are early and late risers among our day-birds ? It 
was not until long after the " Bob White" whistle 
was heard that the crows began to make them- 
selves conspicuously noisy. However, this was 
Virginia we were in, and it is only within a few 
years that black folks have dared to speak at all. 

Our anchorage in Milford Haven was on the 
southern side. The anchor was let go in two 
fathoms of water, but during the night, swinging 
with the tide, the yacht had been left stern 



44 VACATION CRUISING IN 

aground. This accident caused but little delay. 
We were soon floating, and in less than the 
length of the yacht were again in the channel, 
with water enough for a large schooner. Most 
of these harbors have certain features in common. 
Thus there is ordinarily a bar at the outlet, where 
the current of the main body of the water, meet- 
ing with that coming from the harbor, causes 
enough retardation of the water to allow the 
suspended mineral matters to fall to the bot- 
tom. Such, at least, is the explanation which 
forces itself on my mind. There may be a much 
better one, however, for aught that I know. 
Then, again, leading to and from all these har- 
bors, there is a strong current where the inlet or 
outlet is narrow and the harbor is wide. Hence 
through this narrow part there must be a rapid 
current, with great capacity for deepening and 
eroding the channel. This, in fact, is just what 
we find, and when by storm or otherwise the 
channel is closed, this swift current very speedily 
opens another. 

We asked a negro who came along-side to sell 
oysters, just after we had anchored, who the fe- 
males were that, in the absence of the men of the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



45 



crew, saved their sloop from the vengeance of the 
governor when he was hunting oyster pirates, a 
few months before. There was a nice httle story- 
going the rounds of the newspapers that these 
Piankatank women, recognizing the emergency, 
escaped by themselves getting the anchor and 
sails up and navigating the vessel to a place of 
safety. One of our popular illustrated journals 
gave a page or two of rhyming history of the 
affair. The negro knew nothing of it ; but, if it 
" was so, he guessed they must have come from 
the other side." Whether true or not, it illustrates 
that home praises are often very faint, and that it 
is only when echoed back from a distance that 
they are heard at all. Alas for fame ! 

There is a tortuous, very narrow channel from 
Milford Haven out to the bay, in which, by sail- 
ing east, we hoped to save important time that 
would have been lost to have gone out from the 
north as we came in. A very intelligent colored 
man, one Richard McKnight, undertook to pilot 
us through this lower passage. We found him a 
character, who, between serving during war times 
as a cook for a Northern general and as a sailor, 
had gathered quite a fund of information. The 



46 • VACATION CRUISING IN 

use he made of his knowledge as we drifted 
slowly out was very entertaining. His observa- 
tions upon the animal life around us were quite 
acute. As for the fish-hawks and the eagles, he 
seemed to have been taken into their secrets. 
Their sounds and movements were familiar to him 
as those of the little boy who accompanied him. 
Among other things, he told the local tale as to 
why the eagle exacted a tribute from the hawk. 
The former was the earlier inhabitant of the 
region. When the fish-hawk came, he did not 
know how to make his nest. This the eagle 
taught him to do, under promise that the hawk 
should pay in fish for the instruction. This obli- 
gation was disregarded, and the eagle was obliged 
to take his due by force. 

So simple a tale as this, not elaborate enough 
or far enough reaching in its relations to be 
classed as a myth, was, nevertheless, extremely 
suggestive. It brought to my mind the fact that 
these tales are always found, when found at all, 
among those who, without being ignorant, are 
nevertheless always illiterate. How the folk-lore 
originally came, it is, after all, hard to explain. 
It would be hard to prove that it had always a 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. ^y 

more substantial basis than this tale of the col- 
ored pilot. Our American Indians have such 
explanations as this for the habits of almost every 
animal. 

Those wild winter nights when, in 1865, I was 
in the most unknown and uncivilized parts of 
British Columbia were in one way a perpetual 
delight to me. My Indians, crouching around 
the camp-fire, amused themselves by telling, night 
after night, the same tales, with as much eager- 
ness and interest as if they had been wholly fresh 
and new. Thus the beaver and the porcupine 
decided to travel together. The beaver was to 
take the porcupine across the rivers, and the 
porcupine was to help the beaver down the hills. 
The beaver, however, ducked the porcupine in 
crossing a stream ; and then, as his hair dried 
in the warm sun, it became hard and rigid like 
quills. The porcupine retaliated by dragging the 
beaver down the next mountain, and so wore all 
the fat off of the under-side of his body ; and none 
has ever come there since. 

The run of the i6th was a very short one. We 
anchored for the night behind New Point Com- 
fort. So far as the weather was concerned, we 



^8 VACATION CRUISING IN 

rested well enough, but there was a fish-mill on 
shore which was most exasperatingly fragrant. 
It called to mind some passages from "The 
Tempest," — 

Adrian. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. 
Sebastian. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. 
Antonio. Or, as 'twere perfumed by a fen. 

The United States boat " Fish-Hawk" lay in the 
same place. We could not see just what she was 
doing, though, of course, she had some mission 
there, and was accomplishing it in the usual com- 
fortable, leisurely government way. 

Sunday mofning, the 17th, the wind was so fair 
that we concluded to start for Fortress Monroe. 
An hour before sunrise everything looked un- 
promising. The wind was not only dead ahead, 
but there was too much of it. Any other place 
was better than where we were. It was certain 
that we must make a harbor somewhere else. 
Then, too, the Sabbath in full reach of the odors 
from a fish-mill ! It would have been enough to 
banish all proper feeling, and to concentrate all 
one's attention on his nose. So the start was 
made, and soon, as the old adverse breeze died 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 40 

away, a new and favoring one sprang up. This 
carried us to the fort by half-past two in the 
afternoon. 

The following day we started up the James, 
anchoring for the night at the lower end of 
Jamestown Island. The next evening found us 
anchored off City Point, where my vacation work 
was to begin. 

The only unpleasant association connected with 
the place was that my friend, Mr. J., who had 
been with us for a week, took his departure for 
the North and the treadmill of life again. 



50 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



CHAPTER III. 

DOWN THE JAMES AND UP THE CHESAPEAKE. 

To the next generation City Point will have 
lost the meaning which it has for thousands of 
men now living. Its very situation, at the junc- 
tion of the James and the Appomattox, is full of 
stirring suggestions. It is strange that the waters 
which flow past the birthplace of the nation 
should also have their source so close to the spot 
where the final struggle for its life and perpetuity 
was made. 

Bermuda Hundred, City Point, and Petersburg 
are all associated, geographically and histori- 
cally, and all were during the recent war a very 
focus of military operations. Plots and counter- 
plots were worked out there. Troops were em- 
barked and disembarked on the very wharves 
whose ruins yet remain along-shore. Over those 
very decaying piles, hundreds, mayhap thousands, 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



51 



of wounded or sick heroes marched, or were car- 
ried, on their way to Northern hospitals. 

The town itself has but little to speak of. 
Whatever energy the place indicates is centred 
along the wharves, where the railroad and the 
steamboats meet. Rumor says some interest 
hostile to the growth of the place is at work. 
It is hard now to picture the sight of troops and 
engines of war on the very spot which, at the 
time of our visit, was covered with matured 
wheat. The only reminder of war that one sees 
are the six monitors which lie at anchor on the 
southern side of the channel. One officer, re- 
siding in Petersburg, commanded the whole fleet, 
while a squad of men does duty in allowing the 
old war-battered vessels to rust and rot in be- 
coming dignity. Their decks are white ; the iron, 
and other things which the unwritten law of the 
sea demands shall be black, receive their proper 
care and color. All of these monitors have seen 
service. They are part of the original fleet which 
first in a practical way settled the value of ar- 
mored ships. Weak as they now are from age 
and in comparison with the ironclads of other 
governments which have decent self-respect, they 



52 VACATION CRUISING IN 

were once the very bulwarks of the nation. One 
hardly knows whether most to pity or to de- 
spise a power which in time of peace allows its 
strength to rot into weakness, and then to disap- 
pear, — all this, too, as the sop thrown to party 
selfishness on the one hand, and to party fear on 
the other. On the mere basis of probabilities, one 
might venture to assert that there are a score of 
land and water leaders, men yet unknown, who 
in the proper time and emergency would come 
forward to command our forces and to organize 
victory, provided that they had the mere material 
of war. We can probably produce Grants and 
Porters more speedily than ironclads and cruisers. 
Heroes are very much creatures of accident, as 
monitors are of time and money. 

Taking the James as a whole, the banks are still 
very much as nature and war left them. Consid- 
ering that nearly three centuries have passed since 
the early colonists landed, it is remarkable how 
many of the beautiful building-sites along the 
banks remain timber-clad to this day. Here and 
there a stately mansion rises on the bluffs or 
towers up from behind the belt of woods. This 
is to be said, — that when costly homes were 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



S3 



erected, the choice of the site was ahnost invari- 
ably in favor of a commanding position. Nowhere 
in the country is this more clearly manifest than 
along the James. More than this, I fancy one 
can see, only half concealed, the wish that in 
future these same halls might have clustered 
about them not only the associations of the old 
English homes after whose patterns they were 
built, but also something like baronial pomp as 
well. Virginia thresholds suggest not only a 
color line, but a caste line. This is not so much 
an individual peculiarity as it is due to times 
first and circumstances afterward; and it reflects 
the aggregate sentiment of a ruling circle. It 
may, like the odor of roses, persist even after 
the process of disintegration has set in. If one 
is struck unpleasantly by these appearances of 
strength, he must not forget the real strength, 
the genuine heroism and the broad statesmanship, 
which this old commonwealth nurtured. It is fair 
to judge a generation rather by what the best 
men desire to do than by what the average char- 
acters succeed in doing. When actions have 
passed into history and we sum up the doings of 
a past generation, we are most likely to estimate 



54 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



their rank by what the pioneers in thought and 
deed have accomplished for those who followed 
them. This is surely the most ennobling in- 
fluence to be drawn from history ; and in medi- 
tating over the doings of two centuries with 
Virginia, it is well that we give ourselves the 
benefit of that lesson. 

The same old tale of timber destruction which 
is written on the bare hillsides of the North is 
being rewritten on the banks of the James. Tim- 
ber exportation is one of the industries of the 
region, — good enough for the present, but, in the 
interest of the future, not nearly so productive of 
benefit as a policy would be which made men 
save that timber where it is and gain the year's 
living from old acres better tilled. Three-fourths 
of all the vessels that went out of the James 
during our stay there were freighting away tim- 
ber. Granting what must be granted, — the un- 
healthiness of the low grounds, — would it not be 
better to leave them for the present in standing 
timber, where it exists, or even to replant where 
it has been removed in anticipation of the time, 
which is surely coming, in which forest value will 
be as certain as the value of a silver-mine ? The 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



55 



question is, or soon will be, a national one — can 
we longer afiford to be without some such system 
of forestry as has produced beneficent results in 
France and in Germany ? True, it may be many 
years before Virginia will suffer from lack of 
timber. But then that simply means she yet 
has time to study a lesson which many other 
States have already learned to their cost, — that it 
is bad to be short of timber, and that, once gone, 
it takes many years and costs much money to 
restore a forest. 

The difference between the season here and 
near Philadelphia is quite marked. As I looked 
from my cabin window on June 20th I could 
see much of the wheat crop already cut and " in 
shock." A day earlier I found blackberries 
(Riibus villosiis) fully ripened; even the wild 
plums {Pntmis Americana) were commencing to 
be edible. 

With a fair wind, on June 20th we left City 
Point to descend the river. The first stopping- 
place was at Berkeley, a few miles below. I 
wanted a view of the old mansion-house, which, 
erected in 1723, has been the scene of many im- 
portant historical events. Tradition tells us that 



56 VACATION CRUISING IN 

on the lawn in front of this building Patrick 
Henry rehearsed his great speech to the Virginia 
representatives, before whom it was in form de- 
livered at the Virginia Convention. I can neither 
confirm nor deny the historical accuracy of this 
statement, which was given to me by the courteous 
and obliging proprietor, Mr. Stevens. In the same 
house President Harrison was born. It was used 
also by General McClellan during his Peninsular 
campaign ; and then were removed the beautiful 
trees which once ornamented the lawn, facing and 
gradually sloping to the river, three hundred yards 
away. The original grant of this estate dates back 
to 1636, when it was given by the Crown to 
the Merchants' Trading Company, and by them 
sold to Benjamin Harrison, in 1645, ^o^ the sum 
of sixteen pounds sterling, containing then about 
eight thousand acres, and extending back to the 
Chickahominy. 

Malvern Hill, where our great but unutilized 
victory was gained during the recent war, is but 
eight miles distant. 

The steep banks of the bluff, where they face the 
river, show a mixture of sand and gravel which is 
very like that revealed by the cuts of the Chesapeake 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



57 



and Delaware Canal. The bald cypress {Taxodiiim 
distichuni) was at its very best when I saw it in 
June. Its light-green feathery foliage contrasted 
richly with the dark-hued pines back of it. To 
those who have never seen these trees before, they 
always present a strange appearance, which is due, 
first, to the fact that they grow down to and in 
the water ; and, second, to their large, conical, 
buttress-like hollow roots. They can hardly help 
enlarging one's views of the possibilities of plant- 
life and form for variation. Along-side of or but 
little higher than the cypress, the buttonwood 
(Platamis occidentalis)^ with its large leaves, was 
thriving luxuriantly; and, still farther from the 
river, the leaves of the Liquidambar, or the sweet- 
gum tree, stood out boldly with their five to seven 
projecting ray-like lobes. 

In one respect the condition of the negroes and 
poorer whites along the shores of the bay and the 
banks of the river has not much improved since the 
days of slavery. They were then, as now, — prob- 
ably hardly more than now, — largely depending on 
the water for much of their food. Sailing up and 
down the James, we saw them, after the work of 
the day, actively engaged in fishing. In one house 



58 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



which we entered we found an old gray-headed col- 
ored woman preparing the same kind of corn-bread 
that was the staple food years ago. By day and 
by night we could see and hear the sturgeon 
jumping out of the water, and coming down again 
with their characteristic heavy splash. 

When it is remembered that most of the really 
desirable land in our Western Territories is already 
taken up, the idea forces itself upon one that 
capital seeking land investment would do well to 
turn its attention toward Virginia. It should be 
remembered that portions of Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois were once (indeed, still are) as much 
under the curse of malaria as the banks of the 
dreaded James River. Yet those same regions 
have become centres of active industry and of busi- 
ness prosperity. Cinchona has as nearly eliminated 
malaria as an element in retarding civilized oc- 
cupancy of a new land as the telegraph has an- 
nihilated space. This woof and warp of human 
events is a strangely tangled thing. Who could 
have supposed that the discovery of remedial 
properties in a tree on the slopes of the Andes 
would open an avenue which made African ex- 
ploration and settlement by white races possible ? 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



59 



Yet who can deny that it has done so ? Those 
who will drink the waters of Marah have a right 
to the palm-trees of Elim. It is certain that the 
bad reputation of the region along the James was 
intensified by the long list of sick men sent home 
from there during the Peninsular campaign; but 
then it must also be remembered that the circum- 
stances under which those victims had lived were 
altogether exceptional and trying. 

At ten o'clock at night we would hear the 
negro fishermen singing as loudly and happily as 
though they had not already done a day's work. 
Light-hearted race ! How well they illustrate 
that life and contentment are, after all, pretty 
much as we make them ! 

Our short stay on the James would, of course, 
furnish very incomplete data on which to base 
an estimate as to the number of vessels of con- 
siderable size which pass up and down the river 
each day. While we were there, probably it would 
be safe to say, there were three or four daily each 
way that went or had been above City Point. 

On the evening of June 20th we anchored near 
what was left of the old Fort Powhatan. A still 
strong river-wall is all that marks the site of this 



6o VACATION CRUISING IN 

once-important post from the river side. A coun- 
try store stands on the hill above, and a wharf 
furnishes a landing-place for good-sized vessels. 
Shipment of timber appears to be at present the 
chief industry. Earthworks, occupied for a time 
during the recent war, are on the hill back. 

Continuing our voyage down the river, the next 
landing was made at Lower Brandon. During 
the war I had occasion to know the bravery and 
the persistency of purpose with which the Vir- 
ginians adhered to their doctrine of State Rights. 
Here, at Lower Brandon, for the first time in my 
life, I was made acquainted with the hospitality 
for which the old families of the State are so 
proverbial. I presented myself at the door of 
the noble old mansion, a sun-browned yachtsman, 
certainly with dust on my shoes, and I fear with 
the odor of tar on my raiment. The gentleman of 
the house being away, permission to photograph 
the house and its surroundings was very kindly 
given by the ladies. By them, also, I was taken 
to the parlor and shown the old family portraits, 
each of which had a history. Indeed, it is very 
doubtful if a single private room on the continent 
contains a larger number of portraits of distin- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 6 1 

guished persons, most of whom, too, were related 
to the occupants of the house. Some of these 
paintings were more than a century and a half old. 

Colonel Byrd, who figured so conspicuously in 
all the early doings of the colony and in its re- 
lation to the mother-country, had, of course, 
a conspicuous place among the family portraits. 
Mrs. H. most kindly allowed me to examine the 
original manuscript account by Colonel Byrd of 
running the line between Virginia and North 
Carolina. He was himself one of the leading 
characters in the work. Colonel Byrd's writings 
furnish a mine of wealth which no historical stu- 
dent of the times and the colony can afford to be 
without. They have been published under title 
of " The Westover Papers," and throughout are 
characterized by elegance, force, and reliability. 
Of course, on a flying visit it was impossible to 
do more than simply to glance at the precious 
document. I make one extract from it, which 
shows that the author was a keen observer of the 
lower animals as well as of man : 

" When the water is shallow 'tis no uncommon 
thing to see a bear sitting, in the summer-time, on 
a heap of gravel in the middle of the river, not 



62 VACATION CRUISING IN 

only to cool himself, but likewise for the advan- 
tage of fishing, particularly for a small shell-fish 
that is brought down with the stream. In the 
upper part of James River I have observed this 
several times, and wondered very much at first 
how so many heaps of small stones came to be 
piled up in the water, till at last we spied a bear 
sitting upon one of them, looking with great at- 
tention on the stream, and raking up something 
with his paw, which I take to be the shell-fish 
above mentioned." (October, 1729.) 

Of Colonel Byrd, Doyle (" English Colonies in 
America : Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas," 
p. 348) writes: "In 1720 the first event oc- 
curred which throws any clear light from without 
on the internal life of the colony. In that year 
boundary disputes arose between Virginia and her 
southern neighbor, and it was found necessary to 
appoint representatives on each side to settle the 
boundary line. The chief interest of the matter 
lies in the notes left us by one of the Virginian 
commissioners. Colonel William Byrd was a rich 
planter, whose multifold activities and varied ac- 
complishments recall that generation of English- 
men to which Virginia owed her origin. Educated 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



63 



in England, then called to the bar and elected a 
fellow of the Royal Society, afterward for thirty- 
seven years a councillor in Virginia, three times 
agent at the English court, and the leading spirit 
in every industrial enterprise, Byrd shows us how 
active and brilliant a career lay open to a great 
Virginian landholder." 

It is, then, to Byrd's industry in recording the 
events of his daily life that his own well-established 
claim to historical remembrance is due. Besides 
this, however, these same labors made him the first 
American historical authority of his times, and also 
the preserver of a knowledge of social life which 
but for him must have been in great part lost. 
Along with his high sense of honor and a most 
keen penetration, he appears to have been, withal, 
somewhat caustic in his writings. Thus he char- 
acterizes Edenton as being the one capital in the 
world without any place of worship. This mode of 
expressing an opinion reminds one very strongly 
of— 

" 'Tis in Annapolis alone 
God has the meanest house in town." * 

^ See " Colonial Life in Maryland," E. W. Latimer. 



54 VACATION CRUISING IN 

The portrait of Colonel Byrd, and also that of 
Miss Eveline Byrd, hang on the parlor wall at 
Lower Brandon. The latter must have been 
strikingly beautiful. The impression she pro- 
duced has almost become historical. 

Nothing struck me so forcibly as the dignified 
and frank manner in which the war and its im- 
mediate issues have been accepted by the property- 
holders along the James. There is a nobility 
which is above even the reverses of war, and if 
ever in my life I felt that I was in the presence 
of such it was at Lower Brandon. I would like 
to say more, but deprive myself of the pleasure, 
lest the sincerity of what I have written should be 
doubted. 

When night came I could look from my cabin 
window and see, two miles away, the lights where 
the negroes were fishing. I fancied that I could 
hear them singing. But along the line where the 
woods and the water met I could see no other 
light made by human hands. The fire-flies flick- 
ered among the foliage on shore, and the full 
moon rose out of the water to the eastward with 
an unusually cold red light. Scudding clouds and 
puffs of wind lent just enough of weirdness to the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 65 

scene to make me fully realize how these same 
shores appeared when the first voyage of explora- 
tion was undertaken from Jamestown Island to 
the present site of Richmond. I cannot help 
hoping — nay, thinking — that a new prosperity 
awaits the Old Dominion ; that her soil, restored 
to its original fertility, may again produce bounte- 
ous crops ; and that her scars of war will be covered 
by a mantle of peace which shall nevermore be 
turned aside. 

I was particularly anxious to secure a good 
photograph of the Lower Brandon mansion-house. 
But here, as on Jamestown Island, the two places 
where, of all others, I most desired success, I 
absolutely failed to obtain the views. Uniform 
success during the previous season made me so 
careless that I did not attempt developing the pic- 
tures until I returned home. Then, when too 
late, I discovered my failure. The mansion is 
composed of two wings and a main central build- 
ing. The wings were erected first, and of bricks 
brought over from England. One finds there the 
same alternating order of red and black bricks 
that he can still see in so many of the older parts 

of Philadelphia. Subsequently the main central 
e 6* 



(i(i VACATION CRUISING IN 

building, as it stands to-day, joined the wings. 
In spite of the injury wrought by war, it is a riiost 
imposing building. Inside all was once in keeping 
with the exterior ; that it is not so now is largely 
due to some unjustifiable acts of vandalism, I am 
ashamed to say, on the part of our own Northern 
troops. 

I had the pleasure of accompanying the ladies 
to the harvest-field, where Major Page was super- 
intending the cutting of the wheat crop. I found 
him a courteous gentleman, who shook hands 
very cordially with me knowing that we were on 
different sides of the recent conflict. I cannot 
help asking just here how much of the Southern 
intolerance of Northern men may come from an 
ill-advised and indelicate aggressiveness on the 
part of the latter. I make no assertion, but simply 
ask the question. 

There were on the estate about two hundred 
and fifty acres in wheat, and some eighty laborers 
engaged in harvesting it. The major suggested 
about eighteen bushels per acre as the probable 
yield of the one-hundrcd-acre field he was then 
engaged upon. In the thriving crop of clover I 
could sec the sign of a restored fertility. The 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 6/ 

absence of this on much of the land that I visited 
along the James was leading me to underestimate 
the recuperative process which is taking place. 

Lower Brandon mansion, along with its large- 
hearted hospitality, is a house of "many indus- 
tries," as one of the ladies remarked. It is the 
post-office for the region, and the money received 
for their service to the country is set apart for the 
church there, which, like many others, needs all 
it can obtain to enable it vigorously to prosecute 
its Christian work. 

If to the occupants Lower Brandon appears 
like a " Paradise Lost" since the war, there are 
very many who hope that ere long it may be a 
" Paradise Regained." I visited the grounds early 
in the morning of June 22d. The cooing of the 
pigeons and the whistle of the partridges were 
everywhere heard. Squirrels played among the 
branches, or deliberately sat and chattered at me 
as I passed. Their only fear seemed to be when 
on the ground ; but, once on the tree, they imme- 
diately stopped to inspect the intruder. The 
Magnolia grandiflora was in full bloom, and its 
fragrance appeared to temper the morning air. 
Mimosas, with their delicate foliage and still 



68 VACATION CRUISING IN 

more delicate flowers, peeped out from under 
the taller trees. Honeysuckles twined everywhere 
about the mansion, taking possession of whatever 
they could embrace. The strange association of 
plants which originally came from homes which 
were widely distant from each other struck me 
very forcibly. Thus side by side were Scotch firs' 
and mimosas, and over a vigorous Chinese alian- 
thus twined in close contact the English ivy 
(Hederd) and the American poison-vine {Rhus), 
each appearing to thrive as though the land and 
climate had been made for it alone. 

On the Japan quince {Cydoiiia), where the fruit 
was already half matured, I found a luxuriant 
growth of the fungus known to botanists as the 
Rcestelia. What is the subtle discernment among 
plants which enables even these low forms of life 
to recognize, and to appropriate for their own 
nourishment, the suitable life-blood of a higher 
form ? Rcestelia is commonly found parasitic on 
plants of the rose family. To this the Japan 
quince belongs, and the fungus, even though 
American-born, recognized at once in a plant 
imported here from halfway around the globe 
a friend, or a servant, that would nourish it. It is 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



6g 



simply another expression of natural law, which 
operates regardless of the limitations of time or 
longitude. Whether the fitness here of each for 
each is to be expressed in terms of evolution or 
of direct design, it is none the less wonderful. I 
can see a broad system of philosophy in the 
teaching of Mr. Darwin and some of his leading 
conservative followers. The wildest guesses, too, 
of some of his enthusiastic disciples may prove 
true; but so long as guesses are promulgated as 
verified scientific facts, they only by so much 
retard the very cause they are intended to aid. 
Take, for example, the soberly-stated proposi- 
tion of a leading writer of the evolutionist school, 
that among our horned animals those frontal ap- 
pendages (horns) came because of the irritation 
produced by the butting warfare waged among 
the progenitors of our present horned animals. 
The form of logic expressed by such reasoning is 
** that it is easier to believe the proposition than 
to prove to the contrary," a mode which, in spite 
of its convenience, is not safe. Even the argu- 
ment in favor of the statement, derived from the 
order of appearance of these animals in past time, 
does not justify the mode of reasoning employed, 



70 VACATION CRUISING IN 

or the positive, dogmatic teaching growing out of 
it, since there is an utter want of direct proof of 
the cause producing the appendages. How many- 
unknown causes may have led to the same result? 
It is this toleration of probabilities in scientific 
reasoning which has done so much toward 
burdening our modern writings with such a 
load of false conclusions. 

Not long ago I was under the shade of some 
maple-trees whose more than half-matured fruit 
covered the ground. Among these specimens 
there were some where one-half of the fruit (that 
is, one of the pair of winged seeds) had aborted, 
or failed to grow. Surely, in accordance with the 
old, well-established law, it must be, I thought, 
that those half fruits will each be larger than in a 
fruit where both halves have grown to normal 
size. I was ready to prepare a note of it for a 
scientific journal. However, I restrained myself 
until I had examined the facts fully ; when, lo ! 
the half-fruits were found to be no larger alone 
than when grown, as they should have done, in 
pairs. This is not a fable, even if it has a moral. 
I am quite willing to point it against myself, pro- 
viding some of my contemporaries will seriously 








tt^'Af^M^A'^X ~~ 



i -«^^^^■j^^f.M^. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



71 



ask themselves whether they have not been as 
unfortunate in some of their scientific reasoning. 

Before leaving Lower Brandon and its associa- 
tions, I must call attention to the bullet-marks 
shown by the illustration on the eastern front of 
the mansion. These are but a partial expression 
of the lawlessness of our own troops. The shots 
were not fired in battle, but represent the ungov- 
erned lawlessness of warfare. I do not mean to 
assert that our own soldiers were worse than 
others, but simply to say that all such acts as 
mutilate property, destroy life, or in any way in- 
jure an individual, unless done (as these were not) 
in execution of military duty, are wholly inex- 
cusable and unjustifiable upon any pretext what- 
ever. There is a still worse tale of vandalism to 
be told in connection with the same building. On 
one of the windows there was, written by him- 
self, the name of each President, down to that of 
our martyred Lincoln. Associated with these 
were the autographs of many statesmen and 
scholars. One might suppose that such honored 
autographs would be secure, engraved with the 
diamond on the glass, against even the great de- 
stroyer Time, and that they would be both sacred 



>j2 VACATION CRUISING IN 

and safe among the soldiers of Freedom. But 
they were neither, for an unpalsied Northern arm 
shattered the pane and destroyed the roll. 

It is sad to see how many of these old estates 
are changing owners, going, though, it may be, to 
those who will care for them and . respect their 
traditions. After all, is there not in the pride of 
ancestry, in the attachment to the State, a prin- 
ciple which, if not in itself pure, unadulterated 
patriotism, is yet a sure foundation for patriotism 
to rest upon ? 

River navigation is always most uncertain. 
How often we were " headed off" by the wind in 
some days of sailing on the James it is hardly 
possible to say. We started to Brandon in a calm, 
but reached our anchorage in a furious little gale, 
which covered the river with white-caps in a few 
minutes. However, the tide was going out, and 
we soon found the yacht had nestled down into 
a soft bed of mud, where she quietly lay. That 
was not a hundred yards distant from where an 
ocean-steamer passed an hour before. 

On the evening of June 22d we anchored south 
of the Chickahominy, and next morning ran over 
to photograph the mouth of this historic river. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. yy 

In itself it is nothing but a good-sized stream, 
opening through swamps and low, pine-covered 
bluffs into the James. For all this, however, it 
has been the scene of some of the most impor- 
tant events witnessed in our short colonial and 
federal life. Captain John Smith, very soon after 
the location of the settlers upon Jamestown 
Island, set out to explore the Chickahominy 
region, which, though nominally under control of 
Powhatan, was directly governed by his brother 
Opechancanough, who from first to last was hos- 
tile to the whites. It was on this trip that Smith 
was captured, and marched from village to vil- 
lage by his captors, then doomed to execution, 
and rescued from the jaws of death by Pocahon- 
tas. This, at least, is the legend, which, it is to be 
remembered, came not at first from Smith him- 
self The romance of it never was heard of until 
Pocahontas became, after baptism, the Lady Re- 
becca. Here, too, is a strange incident in her life, 
which, as it has not been so fully told elsewhere, 
I will quote from Doyle (" English Colonies in 
America : Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas," 
p. 143) : " It now came to Argall's ears that Po- 
cahontas, now about seventeen years old and mar- 
D 7 



74 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



ried to one of Powhatan's captains, was with the 
king of the Potomac. Argall at once determined 
to possess himself of her, as a means of ransom- 
ing the English prisoners and goods taken the 
previous year. With this view he went boldly to 
Japazaus, and told him that unless he delivered 
up Pocahontas to the English he must no longer 
regard them as brothers and friends. This threat, 
backed up, according to one account, by the 
promise of a copper kettle, proved too much for 
the fidelity of Japazaus. Pocahontas was beguiled 
on board Argall's vessel, and found herself a pris- 
oner. Other influences possibly were at work to 
bring about a union between the races. In the 
spring of 1613, Pocahontas was baptized by the 
name of Rebecca, and married to one of the prin- 
cipal settlers, John Rolfe." This was just about 
one year later than when, as a captive, she was 
the wife of one of her father's captains. Was 
she for a brief period a widow ? One year later, 
Ralph Hamor, who appears to have been both 
educated and influential, went to Powhatan with 
a request for another of his daughters. I will not 
give the full particulars of that visit, but refer the 
reader to Doyle {op. cit.y p. 145). This same 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 75 

Hamor (apparently) wrote that Rolfe "married 
one of rude education, manners barbarous, and 
cursed generation, merely for the good of the 
plantation." 

The least that can be said is, this is a pity if 
true, — so much of a pity that we prefer to accept 
Bancroft's account of the conversion and court- 
ship of the Indian princess. It may be that 
Hamor's own unsuccessful suit had somewhat 
soured his disposition against the Indian race 
and manners. 

Still more history has been made for Virginia 
along the banks of the Chickahominy. In 16 16, 
owing to the almost exclusive attention which was 
paid by the colonists to the culture of tobacco, 
there was not enough of corn for food. The 
Chickahominy Indians had promised a supply, 
but, seeing the straits to which the whites were 
reduced, refused contemptuously to deliver the 
stipulated quantity. This resulted in a fight, in 
which twelve Indians were killed and as many 
more captured. This for a time enforced peace ; 
but only for a time. The Indians, a few years 
later, made a bloody retaliation, which threatened 
the very life of the young colony. 



^6 VACATION CRUISING IN 

The events of i860 to 1864 along the famous 
little stream are still fresh in memory. At last 
white-winged Peace, in the shape of trading- 
schooners, go up and down the Chickahominy 
giving Northern money in exchange for Virginia 
lumber. We may now well believe that its future 
will be as quiet as its past has been turbulent. 

Prosperity came slowly to Virginia ; but it did 
come, nevertheless. Bancroft, describing the con- 
dition of things there in 1656, says, "Virginia had 
long been the home of its inhabitants. 'Among 
many other blessings,' said their statute-books, 
' Almighty God hath vouchsafed increase of chil- 
dren to this colony, who are now multiplied to a 
considerable number ;' and ' the huts in the wil- 
derness were as full as the birds'-nests of the 
woods.' " 

I was much struck by the patriarchal appear- 
ance of some of the negroes. One, whose white 
head and placid countenance was especially im- 
pressive, called to mind the lines of Keats, — 

" While his bow'd head seem'd listening to the Earth, 
His ancient mother, for some comfort yet." 

Nights in June, along the James, apparently 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. yy 

were just suited to the fire-flies. Rather, I should 
say, these bright Httle creatures were almost the 
only things visible after dark. They would crowd 
about the yacht when a mile out from land. 

The bluffs, along the southern shore especially, 
furnished a most instructive lesson in world- 
making, stratum after stratum being piled each 
above the other in a very striking way, their hori- 
zontal position suggesting naturally enough their 
deposition from the water, and then, being undis- 
turbed ever since. On the other hand, the water, I 
might say, gives an equally interesting lesson, but 
one which is not so far advanced. Approaching 
the southern shore, just below Hog Island, as 
we were hunting a channel into a little creek, we 
found by the lead-line that for a long distance the 
bottom was almost absolutely flat. " One fathom" 
was the report, repeated until it became painfully 
monotonous. The lead indicated everywhere that 
soft mud was being evenly deposited. In many 
places an oar could be run down into it several 
feet with the utmost ease. The bluffs were once 
just as the river-bed now is, and, allowing suffi- 
cient time, the future student of geology may find 
the now-forming mud flats above the surface of 
7* 



78 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



the water, and point to them as being simply 
another page in the same natural history. 

Jamestown Island was the next point of special 
interest below the Chickahominy. Mr. Brown, 
the present proprietor of Old Jamestown, received 
me with the utmost kindness, and allowed me to 
photograph whatever I desired to. The patience 
of gentlemen who own such interesting spots as 
this passes my comprehension. But once during 
the entire vacation did I meet with anything 
which approached a rebuff, and that was under 
circumstances which were fully and satisfactorily 
explained afterward. Yet I had no letters of 
introduction anywhere; and I take this oppor- 
tunity of saying, once for all, that the pleasantest 
memories of my trip on the James are associated 
with the uniform kindness I received from those 
upon whom I called for information, or for per- 
mission to photograph points of interest. I espe- 
cially desired to secure good photographs of the 
ruins on Jamestown Island. My want of success 
has been explained in connection with a similar 
failure at Lower Brandon. 

Even the ruins of Jamestown have almost dis- 
appeared. Fragments of the old magazine remain, 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



79 



and also a portion of the church tower ; but these, 
with the cemetery back of the church, are the 
only visible memorials of a time and a settlement 
which we regret have left so few monuments. It 
is evident, however, from the scattered bricks and 
the faint indications of old cellars and the like, 
that the settlement covered a considerable area.* 
It was ill-fated from the very start. The unfortu- 
nate site was chosen simply because, being an 
island, it might more readily be defended against 
Indian attack. It is strange, however, that it was 
necessary for the friendly Indians to warn the 
settlers that, if they expected exemption from such 
onsets, they must clear the ground and remove 
the reeds or tall grass that grew on the low, 
swampy lands, for in these the attacking parties 
would surely secrete themselves. 

Disease, growing out of the situation, swept 
away the settlers, and proved so inimical to the 
young colony that its abandonment as the chief 
point was merely a question of time. Disaster 
after disaster was associated with the place. 
About 1609 the condition of things there was 

* It is more than probable that the James River now flows over 
what was once within the limits of the town. 



8o VACATION CRUISING IN 

disheartening. Smith, who had ruled wisely and 
firmly, was so injured that he was obliged to 
return to England. Percy succeeded him, but, 
owing to ill health, lacked the force of will re- 
quired in one who was to rule over so turbulent 
a community. Doyle (/. c, p. 132) thus describes 
the situation : " The Indians slew the settlers* 
hogs, and cut off any stragglers from the fort. 
Ratcliffe, who had gone in command of a foraging 
party, was entrapped into an ambush by the In- 
dians and killed, with thirty of his men. The 
outward aspect of the colony proclaimed its state 
of anarchy and distress. Jamestown looked more 
like the ruin of an ancient fortress than an inhab- 
ited town. The palisade was torn down, and the 
gates off their hinges. Rows of deserted houses 
told of the mortality which had thinned the set- 
tlement, while their shattered timbers, torn and 
broken for firewood, bore witness to the sloth 
and thriftlessness of the survivors." Abandon- 
ment of the whole place and embarkation for 
more promising shores were seriously considered, 
and only the arrival of reinforcements, with fresh 
stores and with provisions^ prevented the execution 
of this purpose. Then, several years later, came 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, 8 1 

the first massacre by the Indians, in which three 
hundred and forty-seven settlers were slain. This 
assault was directed, if not led, by Opechancan- 
ough, of whose subjects, it will be remembered, 
twelve had been killed and twelve captured in a 
previous encounter with the whites. In 1644 the 
same inveterate foe instigated another massacre of 
the whites, in which three hundred perished. Then, 
among its other reverses, Jamestown was burned in 
the struggle between Bacon and Berkeley. James- 
town was abandoned as the capital, and Williams- 
burg named as its new location. (In 1696?) 

The most interesting ruin of Old Jamestown is, 
of course, its church tower. One marvels that a 
church so large as this was (judging from the 
ruined tower) could have been erected at so early a 
period in colonial history. It is to be remembered 
that to the men of those times (at least, to the 
better part of them) worship was something more 
than a luxury. I did not measure the tower (as 
I should have done), but should say it had a 
square base of about twenty feet. The remains 
still rise say twenty-five feet, and are entered by 
a fine large doorway. The bricks, of course, were 
brought from England. The first question which 
/ 



82 VACATION CRUISING IN 

naturally suggests itself is : Why should a spot so 
full of sacred and patriotic memories as this is 
be allowed to fall into ruin, and to be overgrown 
by weeds? Or, worse still, why should it be 
allowed to remain so ? Alas for mankind ! The 
proprietor apologized for the appearance of the 
ground, and said, " I would gladly open it up and 
uncover the graves, were it not for the fact that to 
do so would simply be to make them more ac- 
cessible to curiosity-seekers. Men come to the 
old tower and carry off the young ivy shoots ; they 
break the tombstones, and nothing is so sacred as 
to prevent its destruction." From what I saw, 
there could be no doubt about the truth of his 
statement. 

Through the gateway of the tower we passed 
into the old graveyard, over what was probably 
the site of the body of the church. Here and 
there an opening in the rank underbrush and 
weeds revealed a tombstone or sepulchral slab, 
and on some of these an inscription may be made 
out. Time has dealt harshly with the lettering, 
and in some cases almost destroyed the characters. 
There is a remarkable instance of the effect of 
tree - growth, furnished by a buttonwood tree 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 83 

(Platanus occidentalis) which stood by the side of 
a grave. Since the time of burial this has grown 
into a very large tree. Meanwhile its lateral growth 
encroached upon the horizontal slab covering the 
grave, and also carried it upward slightly. Hence 
the stone became imbedded in the base of the tree, 
and was also subjected to a considerable vertical 
strain. The two forces fractured it. Mr. Brown 
informs me that human agency aided in its 
further destruction afterward. There was no 
date to indicate the age of the grave. 

From other graves I copied the following in- 
scriptions : 

" Under this Stone lies interred 

The Body of 

Mrs. Hannah Ludwell, 

Relict of 

The Hon. Philip Ludwell, Esq., 

By whom She has left 

One Son and Two Daughters. 

After a most exemplary Life, 

Spent in chearful Innocence 

And exercise of 

Piety, Charity, and Hospitality, 

She Patiently submitted to 

Death on the 4th Day of April, 1731, in the 52 

Year of Her Age." 



34 VACATION CRUISING IN 

Another reads : 

" Here Lyeth William Sherwoo— d, (?) 

That Was Born in the Parish 

of White Chappel Near 

London. A great Sinner 

Waiting for a Joyfull 

Resurrection." 

The colony was then, at the time of Mrs. Lud- 
well's death, more than a century old. This 
further shows with what rapidity even our sup- 
posed imperishable memorials are effaced by time. 
It raises the question, also. Was this the first ceme- 
tery the colonists had upon the island ? It also 
makes clear that removal of the capital from 
Jamestown, in 1696, did not depopulate the place, 
however much it may have lessened its importance. 
Doyle has correctly stated that the life of the 
Virginian of that period was, from choice, in the 
country, rather than in the town, — his plantation 
interests demanded his presence. 

There is probably less than an acre inside the 
brick wall surrounding the cemetery. It is incom- 
prehensible that the State of Virginia should not 
have made some provision for the care of these 
grounds. Some other States would have pur- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 85 

chased the site, and established such a custody- 
there as would have effectually protected the 
place. 

A few hundred yards above the church tower, 
along the bank of the river, we came upon what 
tradition calls the " old magazine." I at first 
thought I had reason for doubting that this had 
been its purpose. However, a closer examination 
showed me that tradition was probably correct. 
The vault and the thickness of the walls make 
this the most plausible theory. The illustration 
shows that the building is now almost wholly 
undermined by the water. A cypress-tree, still 
farther up, stands now well out in the water. 
This, too, the illustration shows. Yet, some 
thirty years ago, the road, I was told, ran by 
that tree ; hence so recently as this the magazine 
must have been well inland. These data serve to 
show with what rapidity the river is encroaching 
upon the land. 

Williamsburg was laid out with such great 
anticipation of its future, and in such extreme 
loyalty to the king, that its ground-plan was that 
of the letter W- However, it failed to meet the 
hopes which were formed. 



S^ VACATION CRUISING IN 

The long-cherished idea of a college for the 
colony was realized there. Doyle (/. c, p. 273) 
says of it : " Meanwhile, the college was advanc- 
ing, and before Nicholson's term of office had 
come to an end two sides of the quadrangle 
which the building was designed to form were 
completed. A few years later, however, a fire 
undid all that had been accomplished ; and when 
Beverly wrote, in 1720, though the damaged 
buildings had been restored, no further progress 
had been made." 

This institution was first contemplated in 1619. 
The Indian massacre, which so shortly followed, 
put an end to all consideration of the project at 
that time. In 1660 grants in its behalf were 
made; but it was not until 1695 that it was actu- 
ally chartered. Along with the charter the Col- 
lege of William and Mary received, through the 
intercession of the Rev. James Blair, a small en- 
dowment also. In 1776 it was made surveyor- 
general of Virginia, and thus received about five 
thousand dollars a year from fees. This source of 
income was swept away by the Revolutionary war. 
Washington was examined here, and received from 
the college his authority as a deputy surveyor. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



87 



The objects of the college were specified in the 
petition of Blair for its charter. " They were to 
be Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Philosophy, Mathemat- 
ics, and Divinity." Of course this assumes that its 
chief function was in the interest of the Church. 
It may be interesting to note its influence. Bishop 
Meade ("Old Churches and Families of Virginia," 
vol. i. p. 28) writes of this College of William and 
Mary in 181 1 : It "was regarded as the hot-bed of 
French politics and religion, and I can truly say 
that then, and for some years after, in every edu- 
cated young man in Virginia whom I met I ex- 
pected to find a sceptic, if not an avowed unbe- 
liever." From this we may infer that, so far as the 
dogmas of religion were concerned, its mission re- 
mained unfulfilled. 

Quoting again from Doyle (/. c, p. 274) : " Yet 
we may well doubt whether the college did much 
for the colony. About thirty years later one of 
its own Fellows pithily described it as a ' college 
without a chapel, without a scholarship, and with- 
out a statute, a library without books, a president 
without a fixed salary, and a burgess without elec- 
tors.' The College of William and Mary had but 
a small share in training that generation of Vir- 



88 VACATION CRUISING IN 

ginian statesmen who left so deep an impress on 
the history of the world." 

Of its subsequent history we prefer to say 
nothing, save that an institution which lost a 
large part of its government support through 
the Revolution in 1776 would appear to have still 
some claim on the Union which grew out of that 
struggle. 

Passing Hog Island on our way down, we ran 
in along-shore, and spent Sunday at anchor near 
Ferguson's wharf, which is nearly abreast of the 
Point of Shoals light-house. 

The bluffs looked very inviting, and I expected 
to find something of interest there. We had seen 
a blue stratum exposed at several points along the 
river. Here it formed the base of the bluffs, and 
was very suggestive of tertiary deposits, which I 
had seen elsewhere. However, Lew anticipated 
me in the discovery. He soon returned to the 
yacht with the news that there was no end of 
such things (coral and fossil shells) on shore. I 
suggested that the coral might have come there 
as ballast from the West Indies ; but Lew scouted 
the idea : " There is too much of it for that." So 
we went ashore together. The blue stratum was 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 89 

full of shells (pecten and its usual associates). 
Here and there the tide had undermined it, and 
masses fell to the tide-level, where the shells lay- 
in profusion. The coral revealed itself just at the 
tide-hne, and not in the bluff, but out in the water. 
So far as we could see, it was there as an immense 
mass, from which we broke off a fragment weigh- 
ing about two hundred pounds. It never came 
there as ballast. As to its origin and its extent 
geologists may decide, if, indeed, they have not 
already done so long since. We — that is, Lew 
and I — made considerable collections of these 
interesting things for the Philadelphia Academy 
of Natural Sciences. 

June 25th gave us a strong head-wind, which, 
with the tide against us, made the run to Newport 
News a tedious one. No stop was made, as we 
had " done the place" on our way up the river. 

Newport News appears to be one of the spots 
created for some great ends. Its high situation 
indicates easy drainage, and, so far as that goes, 
freedom from many diseases which curse some 
neighboring towns which are built on lower land. 
The great depth of water along-shore, its accessi- 
bility (being free from ice the year through), and, 

8* 



90 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



above all, its being midway between the lands of 
wheat and of cotton, are factors in its destiny 
which indicate a great future for the place. Add 
to these the fact that a strong railroad company is 
erecting buildings so large, so costly, and so per- 
manent that it cannot afford any failure on the part 
of the place. It is, besides, quite as easy of access 
as Norfolk, and has advantages which the latter 
does not possess. Northern energy and capital 
had "taken hold," and many "modern houses" 
were contemplated, if not actually contracted for. 
Most of the buildings erected when we were 
there were of the class that suggested the name 
"Shanty-town" naturally enough. Their tempo- 
rary character, the inmates, and the proportion of 
bar-rooms were strong reminders of some new 
Western towns I had seen; but, like them, New- 
port News bids fair to grow into something better. 
The push and energy of the new West, however, 
were in striking contrast when placed alongside 
of the ways of the old South. It is strange in- 
deed that this, the first river region of the conti- 
nent actually settled in by an English-speaking 
population, should be about the last to feel the 
awakening of a real active life. Were I a young 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



91 



man seeking a home, with the privilege of choos- 
ing between the West and the James River region, 
I should decide in favor of the latter. I offer no 
advice to others in this matter, but what I have 
written represents my own views upon the sub- 
ject. I make the statement, too, with a full 
knowledge of the unhealthfulness of the region ; 
but remember, at the same time (leaving Indiana, 
Illinois, and portions of Ohio out of the question), 
that the Juniata Valley of this State (Pennsylva- 
nia) was once as bad as the valley of the James is 
to-day. 

The name Newport News is still full of stir- 
ring memories. For one short day the victory 
gained by the " Merrimac" (" Virginia") awakened 
hopes among the Confederates which must have 
been bright, — the more so as all that had been 
expected of the new ironclad was far more than 
realized in her combat with our wooden vessels. 
These hopes were but bright illusions, for the 
very next day the " Monitor" turned the tide of 
victory against the soldiers and the sailors of 
the South. 

Besides the memorable naval battle associated 
with Newport News, it and the whole northern 



Q2 VACATION CRUISING IN 

shore were closely connected with our campaigns 
against Richmond; just as Norfolk and the south- 
ern shore were with the defensive operations going 
on at the same time on the part of the Confeder- 
ates. 

Fortress Monroe and Hampton. — We an- 
chored on the evening of the 25th of June in 
Hampton Creek, among " oyster-pungies" and 
fishing-canoes. Negro life appears here, I may 
say, certainly in a most characteristic form ■ pos- 
sibly, too, I may add, after considering all its ob- 
stacles, in a most promising form. Evidently very 
much of the old spirit — the war of the races — is 
still found in certain quarters in Hampton. " Nig- 
ger, light that lamp !" was the order given in a 
store of the village to a colored man of the estab- 
lishment. The fact that it was silently obeyed 
would probably indicate that it was neither un- 
usual nor unexpected. I will not add in which 
of the churches, / was aftcrzvard told, the white 
gentleman held a conspicuous place. However, 
time is a sovereign cure for many diseases. Prob- 
ably in another generation such specimens of lin- 
guistic pathology will be studied even there with 
about the same interest and disgust as that with 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 93 

which a microscopist of to-day examines a section 
from any other festering sore. 

As I watched the water in the night from the 
deck, one of the " nettle-fish" (jelly-fish) passed 
by, slowly drifting out with the tide. It was 
brilliant enough to be seen as a ball of phosphor- 
escent light. We found them so abundant as to 
be nuisances. In Mob-jack Bay, north of York 
River, bathing-houses are built for the express 
purpose of protecting the bathers against them. 

On the night of the 26th of June we had a 
settled rain. Even if there is no inspiration to me 
in the patter on the deck, it is always pleasant. In 
the " Marble Faun," Hawthorne makes his count 
say, " The sky itself is an old roof, and no doubt 
the sins of mankind have made it gloomier than 
it used to be." It was a leaky roof that night, 
in all truth, but our deck was better than the 
roof; so that we had none of the count's gloomy 
philosophy in the little cabin. The next morning 
it was still raining, but I could look out from 
my " ten-by-twelve" home and commiserate the 
negro fishermen as they went by in their open 
canoes. So on down through the various grades 
of comfort one may go. I have no doubt that 



94 VACATION CRUISING IN 

yon negro, clad in oil-cloth, cares nothing for us, 
but is extending his sympathy on down toward 
his poorer comrade, who is now passing the point 
below in a very dingy old canoe, and who has not 
one single stitch of oil-cloth between himself and 
the rain. Men, in comparing, seldom care to go 
higher than themselves. It is best that they 
should not in anything but virtue. 

But, take it " all in all," the life on the water is 
a healthy one. In spite of rain and wind and 
soul-tormenting calm, hardened hands and sun- 
browned face, I have enjoyed it all. It is simply a 
return to first principles, — a vagabond life, if you 
insist upon so considering it, but still one which 
most men some time long for. June 1st I came 
on board my boat painfully conscious of having 
nerves and aching points all over my body. But 
after a month of aquatic life I found muscle had 
the nerves in subjection, and not a single pain 
interfered with perfect peace of mind or of body. 

I have looked in vain through Bacon's " Wis- 
dom of the Ancients" for an interpretation of the 
fable of Antaeus, the earth-born giant. This enor- 
mous being was said to have been monarch of 
Libya, and a son of Neptune and Terra. I have 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 05 

often wondered why the wise Baron of Verulam 
allowed the conflict between the giant and Her- 
cules to pass unnoticed. His " Novum Organum" 
supplied, so thinkers say, the pass-key which 
opened all the dark chambers of mind and mat- 
ter. I believe, however, that no single thought 
as to what the fable might mean ever entered 
the lord high chancellor's dream. Great truths 
usually become plain when the world is ready for 
them, — at least so nearly ready that, when started, 
they can take care of themselves. Modern civil- 
ization had not in 1609 a.d. brushed away the 
last particles of soil which clung to man. He was 
still of earth, a little earthy, and not wholly un- 
natural. He, too, as well as Antaeus, remembered 
his ancient mother, knew that he was fashioned 
from the dust, and drew fresh strength whenever 
he pressed the dear bosom again. The little 
pigmy cares, to Antaeus, were only playfellows 
that entertained him as he lay full-length, absorb- 
ing might from the greensward or leafy bed. 
But these same associates, with whom we dwell 
not only by day, in business hours, but at night, 
in the renewing and strengthening hours, have 
grown to be the Hercules lifting us up so high 



96 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



from earth that neither hand nor foot nor mind 
can often touch the soil whence all our early- 
strength came. Only once in a great while do we 
get down to our fount of life and vigor ; and then 
we leave it strong or weak as we have lingered 
there or hastened rashly away into the grasp of 
Hercules again. How much these summer-loi- 
tering hours with earth and sky and water would 
renew our youth if we would allow our minds 
and bodies a holiday ungrudged ! 

When a man, already rich, comes to endure labor, 
through the heat of summer and through the cold 
of winter, simply for the gain it brings, then he 
needs a force to drag him off for a season, to 
isolate him from the world, while he can contem- 
plate some high ideal in art or in science, in philan- 
thropy or in religion. 

The recent address of Herbert Spencer in New 
York came with great power from one who knew 
so well, experimentally, the evil effects of overwork. 
He told us, — 

" In America, as in England, work with many 
has become a passion. The savage thinks only of 
present satisfaction, and leaves future satisfaction 
uncared for. Contrariwise, the American, eagerly 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



97 



pursuing a future good, almost ignores what good 
the passing day offers him ; and when the future 
good is gained, he neglects that while still striving 
for some remote good. 

" What I have seen and heard during my stay 
among you has forced on me the belief that this 
slow change from habitual inertness to persistent 
activity has reached an extreme from which there 
must begin a counter-change, a reaction. Every- 
where I have been struck with the number of faces 
which told in strong lines of the burdens that had 
to be borne. I have been struck, too, with the 
large proportion of gray-haired men ; and inquiries 
have brought out the fact that with you the hair 
commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier 
than with us. Moreover, in every circle I have 
met men who have suffered from nervous collapse, 
due to stress of business, or named friends who 
had either killed themselves by overwork or had 
been permanently incapacitated, or had wasted long 
periods in endeavors to recover health. I do but 
echo the opinions of all observant persons I have 
spoken to, that immense injury is being done by 
this high-pressure life, — the physique is being 

undermined. 

E ^ 9 



gS VACATION CRUISING IN 

"... Old Froissart, who said of the English of 
his day that ' they take their pleasures sadly, after 
their fashion,' would doubtless, if he had lived 
now, say of the Americans that they take their 
pleasures hurriedly, after their fashion. . . . Nor 
do the evils end here: there is the damage to 
posterity. Damaged constitutions reappear in 
children, and entail on them far more of ill than 
great fortunes yield them of good. When life 
has been duly rationalized by science, it will be 
seen that among a man's duties care of the body 
is imperative, not only out of regard for personal 
welfare, but out of regard for descendants. His 
constitution will be regarded as an entailed estate 
which he ought to pass on uninjured, if not im- 
proved, to those who follow ; and it will be held 
that millions bequeathed by him will not com- 
pensate for feeble health and decreased ability to 
enjoy life." 

Holiday grew out of holy-day. This originally 
meant a day which was perfect or excellent. The 
history of our word for such a season of recreation 
hardly more clearly suggests the sacredness of 
rest, than it does the godliness of strength which 
springs from the holiday. There is a sin against 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



99 



the body which is unpardonable, because it leads 
to death, and so destroys the form in which 
creative energy has thus far culminated. Recrea- 
tion once signified restoration to health. 

Hampton Roads and the region around is the 
veritable historic centre of the country. An ac- 
cident gave the name, Point Comfort, to the sandy 
point where Fortress Monroe now stands. Driven 
by a heavy storm in July from the Piankatank, 
Captain John Smith found his first secure shelter 
under its protection. Hence the name, inspired 
by gratitude. But how often since has the same 
safe anchorage awakened similar emotions ! 

The plans for French naval co-operation dur- 
ing the Revolutionary struggle were made here 
before the advance on Yorktown. In 1813, after 
being repulsed at Norfolk, the British vented 
their rage upon the unprotected village of Hamp- 
ton. During our recent war the possession of 
Fortress Monroe decided in our favor most im- 
portant events. Indeed, it is hard to say what 
might have followed had this position fallen into 
the hands of our adversaries. A glance at the 
map will show at once how essential to us it was. 
There might have been no iron-clad engagement 



100 VACATION CRUISING IN 

at Newport News, but, instead, Washington and 
Baltimore would have been exposed to immediate 
attack from the " Merrimac." Here the first slaves 
were landed ; and in Fortress Monroe was issued 
General Butler's famous order which declared 
slaves to be, as property, " contraband of war," — 
an order that removed the curse under which for 
two centuries the African race had groaned on 
our j^^^ shores. 

To speak of that marvel of hotels, the " Hygeia" 
(under the very guns of Fortress Monroe), is 
simply to repeat what is already well known. 

In the village of Hampton is St. John's Church, 
one of the ecclesiastical landmarks of the country. 
It was built in 1658, was in ruins during the war 
of 181 2, and used then by the British as a stable, 
and burned in 1861, when General Magruder fired 
the town to prevent its being used by the Northern 
troops. The walls are built of bricks made in 
England, and seem as though they might still 
outlast the centuries, notwithstanding the trials 
they have endured. I am indebted to the present 
rector, Rev. J. J. Gravatt, for a photograph, show- 
ing one of its sides, in front of which is a group 
of Indian students from the Hampton School. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, jqi 

So much of history of the early and the late 
events of national life can seldom be found 
crowded into so limited an area. Yet I have 
only alluded to some of the striking outlines of 
all that has been witnessed here. 

Still more important history — at leasts not less 
important — is being made now on the same ground, 
but under the quiet rule of peace. Less obtrusive 
by far than the stirring events of the past, what is 
now being done toward educating the Indian and 
the colored races must leave a trail of light in the 
future. It will yet be reckoned among the first 
clear, shining acts of justice toward those with 
whom our dealings in the past have been dark as 
infamy. If we credit the Hampton School with 
no higher results than those of an experiment, 
thus far successful, we cannot over-estimate the 
importance of what it has accomplished. What 
is to be done with the Indians ? Probably Hamp- 
ton and other like schools will soon teach us. 

Its great mission is with the Negro. A curse 
follows a crime closely ; and the curse is looming 
up dark and threatening. If slavery was once 
fitly characterized as the black plague, what shall 
we say of the ignorance it engendered among 



102 VACATION CRUISING IN 

those who were the victims ? Emancipation, irre- 
spective of its righteousness, became a war meas- 
ure necessary for the salvation of the country. 
With it came the right of suffrage, as naturally as 
sunshine comes with the sun. But a vote is a 
vote, whether cast by an intellectual giant or by 
a mental dwarf, and has as much weight in one 
case as in the other. In this is the well-recog- 
nized danger; for the perpetuity of republican 
government is assured only as long as the ma- 
jority is intelligent as well as honest. Couple 
these evident truths with the fact that the rate of 
increase is vastly greater among the uneducated 
black race than among the more cultured whites. 
This is the whole truth and the whole danger, 
and this, then, the curse : that those whom we 
once enslaved and degraded threaten to subvert 
even the power that at last invested them with the 
dignity of a full citizenship. Shall the vigorous 
free black, with his enormous rate of multiplica- 
tion, sometimes vengeful, usually injudicious, come 
to doom finally the very institutions which, as a 
slave, he has already so greatly endangered ? 

Hampton School demands not only national aid 
in its projected work, but national gratitude as 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. J03 

well. Every educated colored man it sends forth 
is a pledge to the future. Considering the diffi- 
culties which lay in the road of the institution, 
it is no longer an experiment, but an astounding 
success. 

Copying from the official report of the school, 
which bears date of June 30, 1882, I find the fol- 
lowing statements of Mrs. E. C. Dixon : 

" Of the 389 graduates and 37 Senior under- 
graduates — those who left before the end of the 
third year — entered in the new * Record-Book :' 
(males, 280; females, 146; total, 426), I have 
learned that 326 have engaged in teaching, and 
that more than three-fourths of the whole — i. ^.,319 
— have made teaching their vocation since they 
left the institute ; three are licensed preachers, as 
well as teachers. Over ninety per cent, have en- 
gaged in teaching. Of the whole number 27 have 
died ; 2 became insane ; leaving 397 to be ' kept 
track of.' 

" Taking those engaged in teaching : Of 
these, 

** 276 have taught in Virginia. 

46 " ** « North Carolina. 

14 " « " South Carolina. 

16 " " " Maryland. 



104 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



5 have taught in New Jersey. 



5 " 


« 


<< 


Georgia. 


4. " 


« 


« 


Alabama. 


4- " 


(( 


« 


Louisiana. 


2 " 


(( 


(( 


Florida. 


1 has 


(( 


(( 


Tennessee. 


I '' 


(( 


(( 


Missouri. 


I " 


« 


tt 


Kansas. 


I '' 


« 


<* 


Delaware. 


I *' 


(( 


(( 


Ohio. 


I *' 


« 


« 


Vermont. 


I '' 


« 


(( 


Nebraska." 



One can hardly help noticing the overwhelm- 
ing proportion of those students who went South, 
where they could render the most signal service. 
Such a showing leads inevitably to the conclusion, 
that, together with the knowledge imparted, the 
institute must keep constantly before its students 
what is their manifest destiny and their highest 
moral obligation. 

We owe support to a school that does so 
much toward removing the national danger from 
ignorance, and substitutes for it, hope and high 
possibilities. 

Besides the mere matter of education, in its 
common acceptation, we must also remember the 
trades which the negro has a chance of learning 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 105 

there, some of which, at least, he can learn in very- 
few other places. Hence the tendency of the 
work done in the school is not only to place the 
pupil on a respectable plane of life, but to enable 
him to hold his position in future. The full 
import of this can be understood only when it 
is remembered that over a large portion of the 
United States there are trades' unions from which 
the negro is systematically excluded, and by 
which, so far as may be, he is prevented from 
acquiring a trade. I am simply mentioning the 
fact, not criticising it. In truth, bad as the prin- 
ciple may be, it is in reality no worse than Wall 
Street gambling in the property of others, or than 
a wheat corner in Chicago, which speculates in 
the daily bread of the laboring man. Neither of 
these is worse than the others, for all spring from 
the law of self-protection first, and then grow into 
inordinate selfishness at last. 

How well the Hampton work is done appears 
from the following extract, taken from the memo- 
randum - sheet accompanying the " Report for 
1882 :" " Our printing-office, book-bindery, har- 
ness-, tin-, wood-working, and shoe-shops, will 
gladly compete for work wholly on the merit and 



I06 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the prices of the articles made." [Signed, S. C. 
Armstrong, principal.] 

Two large farms and a saw-mill, besides the 
above-named industries, give to the willing and 
energetic students further means of supporting 
themselves while receiving their education. 

In a volume like the present it would be out of 
place to go more into detail than we have. 

The Indians, of whom there were ninety-two in 
attendance during the year ending June, 1882, ap- 
pear to be mainly, or. in part, at least, supported by 
the government, — that is, the United States gov- 
ernment pays one hundred and sixty-seven dollars 
apiece for each of one hundred Indian lads. This 
does not include, or meet the expense of tuition, 
which costs, besides, about seventy dollars a year 
for each student. 

From the report of Miss Isabel B. Eustis, I quote 
the following pithy passages : " The success of the 
education of our Indians turns upon the conditions 
which await them on their return to their homes. 
We believe in their ability to stand in an ordinarily 
healthful moral atmosphere. The false conditions 
of life which exist in an Indian agency, the diffi- 
culty of obtaining healthful sympathy or wise re- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, loy 

straint make their task of stemming the current of 
savage life an almost superhuman one. The girls 
have no foot-hold on which to attempt to breast it. 
The boys have their trades, and can separate them- 
selves from their old homes and their camp life. 
There is absolutely no position of dignity to which 
an Indian girl can look forward after three years of 
training, with any reasonable confidence. There is 
nothing for her but to enjoy or suffer the present 
as best she may." ..." Should the United States 
government ever find it possible to keep their 
treaty with the Sioux tribe, which provides for a 
school and suitable teacher for every thirty chil- 
dren in the tribe, the way might open for the solu- 
tion of the knotty problem." Such schools located 
. among all the Indian tribes " would give honorable 
work, full of inspiration to our best Indian girls." 
Just one extract more to show the other side, — the 
absence of such suitable employment. This I take 
from the report of Lieut. George Leroy Brown : 
"The girls- must be prepared to stand up against a 
' sea of trouble' and temptation." 

There is one more aspect to this question of 
practical philanthropy which is working out a 
solution of so many social and political problems 



I08 VACATION CRUISING IN 

and dangers. Those who lead in such movements 
are, in a large number of instances, ladies, — women 
of character, culture, and refinement, who endure 
the work and the sacrifices connected with it from 
the very best and purest principles. Yet to these 
very pioneers our leading colleges, in most in- 
stances, deny the advantages of an education 
which would be cheerfully accorded to the pupils 
of those ladies. It is useless to decry this as an 
act of flagrant injustice; just now our eyes are 
blinded when we look at the question. But 
some sort of moral revolution will come, — nay, 
is coming, — by which the scales will be removed ; 
and we will then ask, how could we ever have 
been party to such a wrong ? 

It is right that the Negro or the Indian should 
be admitted to the best college course, when pre- 
pared for it. But how can it be right that his 
teacher shall be deprived of like advantages ? 

Do the ordinary avocations of daily life, where 
the sexes mingle without restraints, justify the 
fears of our conservative college rulers ? The 
day is probably not far distant when public in- 
stitutions, instead of being judged by what they 
think of themselves, may be measured by their 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



109 



aggressive power for the widest usefulness; and 
when neither age, respectability of teaching force, 
well-equipped laboratories, nor crowded library 
shelves will atone for the sin of narrowness. 

The Hampton National Home for Disabled 
Volunteer Soldiers is well worth visiting. Unfor- 
tunately, the limited time at my disposal prevented 
me from doing so. A view of the grounds, as 
one parses the water-front, leaves the impression 
that all possible is being done for the inmates. 

Wind and weather often interfere with the 
plans of yachtsmen. My own experience did not 
in this respect differ from that of those who sailed 
before me. So with this explanation I must leave 
the large remainder of interesting facts concern- 
ing this most noteworthy region untold. What 
Fortress Monroe now is need not be stated, for 
others have done so more fully than I can do. 

A delightful, easy southerly wind carried us up 
the shore, past Back River, which was once the 
scene of General Magruder's military operations. 
The ground is now devoted to labors more peace- 
ful, more odorous, and more useful. An estab- 
lishment for the extraction of oil from the small 

fish known as " moss-bunker" stands in sight from 
10 



no VACATION CRUISING IN 

the bay. These fish swim in schools, and may- 
be recognized by the dark color they give the 
surface water. The refuse remainder, left after 
extracting the oil, is ground up and forms the 
basis of a fertilizer which is in considerable de- 
mand by agriculturists. That the business is 
lucrative may be supposed from the vast number 
of vessels engaged in the capture of these fish. 
Almost every inlet of considerable size along-shore 
has one or more " fish-mills," where " the catch" 
is " worked up." How long the industry will last 
at the present rate of destruction of the fish is a 
problem which we cannot yet solve. Those en- 
gaged in the business did not mention to me any 
scarcity of fish. Indeed, at Newport News the 
James River appeared to be dotted over with the 
dark schools. Between catching oysters in winter 
and the fish in summer, these amphibious beings, 
negroes and poor whites, manage to eke out a 
living, such as it is. The negro workers I saw 
at one fish-mill, which shall be nameless, were as 
degraded a looking lot of human beings as I ever 
met. But for the fact of their speaking English 
one might have supposed they were fresh from 
the " Guinea Coast." 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, m 

It is a puzzle to me to understand how a man 
can labor amid the filth, the stench, and the as- 
sociations of such an establishment, and still retain 
anything of purity, though I know some men who 
do ; nevertheless, I cannot understand it. 

As noon of the 28th of June approached, we 
rounded Too's Point light-house, on the York 
River, and looked long and eagerly before we saw 
Yorktown. A mere glance at the bluffs, which 
front the river, would leave on the mind of an 
observer the impression that these and the ground 
back of them were an ideal battle-field. There 
is very little concerning the place that remains 
unsaid. If I were obliged to offer an opinion 
at all concerning the town, I should say that 
neither fire nor war could damage its appearance 
very much. Time was when I regarded the 
surrender of Cornwallis as due entirely to the cour- 
age of our troops. I am now inclined to think he 
wanted to get away from the place badly enough 
to make almost any reasonable sacrifice. I have 
no doubt he would have left earlier had he found 
it possible to do so. 

The evening of June 29th found us anchored in 
Antepoisen Creek, — that is, in the hook made by 



112 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the northern shore, which is guarded by Rappa- 
hannock Spit light-house. What evil genius in- 
spired those who named Mob-Jack Bajs, Sting-ray 
Point, Antepoisen Creek ? Our run had been only 
about thirty-five miles. The wind was fair, though 
most of the way very light. So far as I am able to 
say, I think that, during the month of June, morn- 
ing and evening can generally be depended upon 
for a breeze from some quarter in Chesapeake Bay. 
There is almost as certainly a trying noon calm, 
during which the sun beats down with a most 
intense fervor. Squalls, to be dreaded, often come 
during June and July, and their usual time of ap- 
pearance is towards evening. Our harbor in Ante- 
poisen Creek was another of the many beautiful 
ones, such as we had hitherto found. Near its 
head we were completely landlocked and had 
about two fathoms of water under the bow, — just 
such a place as one can sleep most soundly in. 
There was no fear of anything. 

A brilliant shooting-star darted across the sky 
in the early evening, and after it there were several 
others, but none so bright as was the first. 

Lying on the ground, or on the deck of a ves- 
sel, one becomes acquainted with the sky. The 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 113 

longer he looks the more unfathomable do its 

depths appear. The most distant stars seem on 

the hither side of space, shining out clear of their 

background, and leave on the mind the sense of a 

great void behind them, dark or blue from its vast- 

ness. A night without such meteors is rather rare, 

but we are so taken away from them by fatigue, 

or so shut out from heaven by slate and shingles, 

that we miss seeing their fiery trails when they 

journey inside the limits of our vision, and thus 

we think them something unusual. Cuthbert, the 

shepherd-b.oy of the northern English lowlands, 

fancied, when he saw such stars sink into the sea, 

that they were angels carrying home the soul of 

good Bishop Aidan. Like all who led his life, 

the lad had never come to think of the stars 

simply as of lanterns. He had watched them 

through all his eight years, and had made them 

his friends, — remote to be sure, — friends, too, that 

sometimes hid their faces behind the clouds, when 

he would fain have seen them ; but still they were 

friends with some good mission toward such 

simple folk as lived in those trustful times. I 

have companions who have sought wisdom in 

the books until they are pale, and who have lost 
h 10^ 



114 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the elastic step one should have until his head is 
silvered. They can name each star and tell its 
distance from the earth in miles, but they have 
never laid down and gone to sleep while looking 
up at them, and wondering, not studying, how big 
those stars were. I think these persons have 
missed an element of education which would 
send them back to work wiser and better and 
healthier for their gazing. 

A zoologist could employ his time well on the 
boat some days studying the habits of the an- 
imals. Swallows come and sit on the gaff, when 
far away from land. That is not strange; but 
that anything so small, and withal so hated, as the 
potato-bug should venture miles away from shore, 
and then stop on a vessel, is both strange and 
reckless. We simply started them on their way, — 
with the hope, however, that they might not live 
to plague the farmers of the Eastern Shore. Off 
the Piankatank, as we went down the bay, my 
friend, Mr. J., shot a loon. Dissecting it, he 
found in the stomach, undigested, a small, slender 
fish, whereof my other friend, Dr. Bean, of the 
Smithsonian Institution, writes, as follows : 

" The fish which you sent me on the 28th, and 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



115 



which I return now, is Siphostoina fiiscum (Storer, 
Jordan and Gilbert), — the common pipe-fish. It 
frequents our northern coast southward to Vir- 
ginia at least; northwardly its range is unknown, 
but it extends probably as far as Maine. 

" In the pipe-fishes the dorsal fin is the prin- 
cipal propeller, and the body is held obliquely in 
swimming; they swarm in the sea-weeds along- 
shore, feeding upon minute crustaceans and prob- 
ably small detached fragments of Algae. In some 
species the female is much deeper-bodied than the 
male, and in the breeding season is more brightly 
colored. The male has only a rudimentary anal 
fin, and behind this is a marsupium, or egg-pouch, 
into which the eggs are received from the female. 
The young are developed before they leave the 
paternal pouch. The brood is usually large, 
considering the size of the parent. 

" The graceful movements of the pipe-fishes, to- 
gether with the peculiarities of their embryology, 
make them extremely interesting animals for 
marine aquaria. The dorsal is usually oscillating 
with an undulatory motion, its margin describing 
the form of the letter S. Food is sucked into the 
bill with considerable force. The gill-openings 



Il5 VACATION CRUISING IN 

are minute and situated about on the median line 
of the body ; they can be wholly closed by the 
operculum, and thus doubtless facilitate the in- 
ward movement of objects desired for food. 

"The number of species of pipe-fishes on our 
coast is rather large, the Southern States having 
a much larger proportion of them than the North- 
ern. The whole number of recorded species in 
the known seas is upward of one hundred and 
twenty. They prefer warm seas, sometimes enter- 
ing fresh waters. 

" In some cases the marsupium of the male is 
abdominal instead of being behind the anal. We 
have not yet heard of such species in our waters." 

" Crabbed" is a word the meaning of which I 
should enlarge, and say it is a senseless pugnacity 
and a disposition to attack anything with or with- 
out hope of success. This I would deduce from 
observations at headquarters. Lew brought a crab 
to the surface, which, though the well-baited hook 
was less than a foot away, was, nevertheless, 
attacking the lead sinker with all his might. 
Probably on reaching the bottom the sinker had 
fallen on his back or touched one of his numerous 
appendages, and thus excited his wrath, or he 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, nj 

may have attacked it on the general principle that 
it was an intruder. When the water was clear 
and quiet, looking over the side of the boat, we 
saw another wrestling with a fish larger by far 
than itself. Their odd projecting eyes are sharp 
enough, and ever on the watch for something to 
attack. The first approach of an enemy causes 
the claws to rise in aggressive as well as defensive 
warfare. The crab is a mail-clad bully. Probably 
the fact that he is mail-clad, and hence more than 
a match for all his familiar associates, makes him 
reckless in attacking even those with whom he 
is not so well acquainted. He does not know that 
a falling brick would crush him, armor and all. 

Crabs serve to reinforce some ideas one occa- 
sionally gets of men, — the less brains, as a rule, 
the more pugnacious, — that is, granting that all 
stomachs are equally good. I am persuaded that 
an angel would quarrel when suffering from 
dyspepsia. 

Though we had a gun on board, no song-bird 
was shot, or even fired at, from my boat. We had 
every morning in the early part of our cruise 
what was to me a sacred concert. Blackbirds, 
robins, sparrows, even crows and fish-hawks, 



Il8 VACATION CRUISING IN 

joined as best they could in the chorus which 
was sure to bring the sleepers on deck. Is a man 
the worse for having emotions ? Less than a year 
ago a gentle mother sat with a suffering infant on 
her lap, and she promised the babe that when 
summer came, and it was well, the birds would 
sing to it. The promise was kept sooner than 
any one dreamed it would be, for only a few days 
later, before even a crocus was above the ground, 
they did sing a sweet song close by where the 
tiny form lay at rest. I believe the spirit listened 
from beyond the clouds. Since then their notes 
sound to me so much like music intended for the 
best part of man that I always stop to listen. At 
all events, the soul capable of such enjoyment is 
somewhat the purer for being gratified. 

On June the 30th we started early, hoping to 
make the harbor in the mouth of the Patuxent. 
This was only about forty-five miles in a direct line. 
Knowing the uncertainty of the wind, we desired 
to take every advantage that time could give us ; 
hence an unusually early start. At first we had 
a fair wind, and plenty of it ; it was right " astern" 
also. Before we reached the Great Wicomico it 
was " dead ahead," and when we fairly opened the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, hq 

mouth of the Potomac there was a calm. This at 
first was simply an annoyance. We supposed 
it was merely one of the lulls we. had so often 
experienced before, and endeavored to comfort 
ourselves by such philosophy. Hour after hour 
passed, but no wind came. The tide was carrying 
us down and across the bay, — just the direction 
we did not want to go. Then annoyance deepened 
into exasperation (senseless, to be sure), as the 
little yacht was tossed like a feather on the heavy 
swell. There was not a trace of air. Never be- 
fore did I so fully realize what was meant by a 
dead calm. With each lurch of the boat the 
blocks creaked and the sails flapped heavily from 
side to side. The heat was more than the word 
intense implies; it was scorching, and the glare 
from the superheated deck was almost unendur- 
able. What was the pleasure in yachting ? None, 
under such circumstances. So that entire day 
passed. Exasperation gave place to, — well, call 
it fear. " All men are cowards at times," and it 
only renders matters worse to add to the weak- 
ness of fear the sin of prevarication. 

All day the barometer had been going down. 
It was certain that a storm was impending. East, 



120 VACATION CRUISING IN 

south, and west were filled with heavy clouds. 
We could hear the heavy thunder, and see the vivid 
lightning flash across the sky. Would there be 
enough of wind before the squall burst upon us to 
enable us to make some harbor? Or must we 
too stand the onset in our little boat out in the 
middle of the bay? These questions were never 
uttered, though I am quite sure they were in- 
wardly asked by both Lew and myself 

Later in the afternoon a slight wind was seen 
coming over the water towards us from the mouth 
of the Potomac. It came so slowly that we feared 
it would die away before reaching us. After what 
appeared like an age it began to be felt, first fan- 
ning our cheeks, then filling our sails ; and in a 
few minutes more we were quietly slipping through 
the water, back toward Great Wicomico, which we 
had passed early in the morning. This, to be sure, 
was not where we wanted to go, but choice was 
lost in thankfulness to reach any harbor. In 
two hours, just as darkness had fairly settled 
around us, we let our anchor go in a quiet arm of 
the Great Wicomico. It was a lovely, secluded 
little bay, in full sight of one of the greatest fish- 
ing establishments of the Chesapeake, — a perfect, 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 121 

" restful" place that we had found for the morrow, 
which was the Sabbath. 

During the night the storm came; and, as we 
heard the wind whistling fiercely through the rig- 
ging, and felt the yacht rocking on the waves, we 
thought even kindly of the breeze which had car- 
ried us away from our destination, but into perfect 
safety. 

I have related the experience of that day to 
show the most dismal side of yachting by sail. 
If one has a long purse and no end of generosity, 
if he is willing to keep a floating home for sailors, 
to be simply a passenger on his own boat, to go 
when and where his sailing-master directs, then a 
large steam-yacht is much better. I was yachting 
under other circumstances and with other objects 
in view; and, furthermore, as the season wore 
along, I gradually came to prefer risking my 
boat under my own directions than to accept 
what greater skill the presence of a sailing-mas- 
ter, might bring. I will simply add: yacht-owner, 
learn the rudiments, go slowly, but command your 
own craft. If there be any manhood in the sport, 
that will bring it out. If there is not, then it were 
better abandoned. 

F II 



122 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



I must, however, say this : if one can find an- 
other Lew, then he is fortunate. Lew is equal 
to any emergency likely to occur on a small 
craft. Entering the harbor I have described, our 
boat, though drawing only a little over two feet of 
water, grounded. While I was off in the yawl- 
boat hunting the channel he jumped overboard 
and pushed the yacht into deep water. By the 
time she was fairly floating I had found the chan- 
nel, and we were soon in our Sunday harbor. 

On Monday, July the 2d, we were off, and with 
a stiff breeze astern soon passed the mouth of the 
Potomac. I do not know whether, or not, this 
river is usually treacherous, but it has so hap- 
pened, that both my friends, with whom I have 
conversed, and myself have been, as a rule, baffled 
there, by the wind. By ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing we were safely on the northern shore, and 
soon after two o'clock were at anchor back of 
Solomon's Island, in the Patuxent. 

We had passed during the morning from one 
State into another. Was I mistaken in supposing 
that I saw greater thrift north of the Potomac ? 
A few years ago it would have been argued that 
the difference was due to the greater dependence 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



123 



of Virginia on slave labor, — that, though Maryland 
was still a slave State, yet it was not absolutely 
wedded in all its life habits to the enervating curse. 
This may or may not be true. I shall not attempt 
to decide. I cannot take leave of Virginia, where 
I received so much kindness, and for the character 
of whose citizens one must have such respect, 
without bringing out the early relation of the 
mother-country (as judged by her own writers) to 
the perpetuation of the system of negro slavery 
in the colonies. 

Quoting from Doyle (" English Colonies in 
America, Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas," 
p. 388), I find: " In 1719 the Assembly [of South 
Carolina] took the further step of imposing a duty 
of forty pounds on all imported negroes. Had 
this measure been carried, it must have put an 
end to the slave trade so far as South Carolina 
was concerned. It is sad to think that such a 
measure was frustrated by the cupidity and jeal- 
ousy of the English government. But it had 
become a settled maxim of colonial policy to 
allow the provincial assemblies no control over 
external trade, and in all commercial legislation to 
regard the profit of the English merchant rather 



124 VACATION CRUISING IN 

than the social and industrial well-being of the 
colonists. The proprietors and the crown were 
for once united, and the measure was vetoed." 
. . . "A Virginian clergyman, writing in 1724, de- 
plores the number of negroes, and the consequent 
discouragement to the poorer class of white emi- 
grants. In South Carolina more than one attempt 
was made to stem the tide. In 1678, an act was 
passed offering a bounty on the importation of 
indented white servants, Irish alone excepted. 
That they were designed to counteract the influx 
of black slaves, is shown by the provision that 
they were to be distributed among the planters, 
one to every six negroes" (loc. cit., p. 388). 

Patuxent may be called the dividing line be- 
tween the low, sandy shore on the western side 
of the Chesapeake and the bolder bluffs which we 
find more common on the upper parts of the bay. 
I have never seen a more beautiful illustration 
of how perfectly parallel to each other, strata 
may be deposited, and how subsequent erosion 
may remove some and leave other portions, than 
the northern shore of the Patuxent, shows at the 
river's mouth and some distance inside and out- 
side. Neither have I ever seen more tempting 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 125 

building-sites than these same bluffs offer. High, 
dry, froixting on salt water, with no fresh-water 
marshes near, such situations, one might infer, 
would be healthy. For aquatic sports the harbor 
of the Patuxent would afford abundant facilities. 
I have no doubt game is abundant both on land 
and on the water in season. 

It is safe to say, that when the demand for 
country homes becomes more common among 
persons of culture than it now is, these bluffs will 
be in demand as building-sites. Of course, that 
will be when facilities for reaching Washington, 
Annapolis, and Baltimore are greatly increased. 

From the Patuxent we crossed to the Eastern 
Shore. Early in the morning there was a gentle 
breeze. It soon showed that we could not de- 
pend upon it. I therefore headed directly across 
to secure an anchorage where we could hold what 
ground we had gained, and not drift hopelessly 
back with the tide. It was late in the afternoon 
before we had any wind. A large schooner that 
passed across our bow, going up the bay, had 
drifted back several miles astern of us. Night 
came on, dark enough, and we were obliged to 

appeal to the- lead-line to aid us in finding our 
II* 



126 VACATION CRUISING IN 

way up the Choptank, after passing the light off 
Benoni's Point. We at last, fearing to venture 
farther, let an anchor go in Lecompte's Bay on 
the southern shore of the Choptank. Next morn- 
ing, July 4th, we had a fair wind into Cambridge 
Harbor. 

Sunday morning, July /th, I rose early, at half- 
past four. The pure glory of the morning im- 
pelled me to do so. Home-life is very apt to rob 
one of the cream of the day. Tired by the duties 
which the acquisition of daily bread imposes 
upon us, we shut ourselves within ourselves and 
brick walls. But this is not to be endured when 
yachting. The windows are widely open, and the 
earliest streak of dawn along the horizon invites 
you forth to receive your day's allowance of health 
fresh from the hand of morning. Some one says 
early risers are apt " to be conceited all forenoon, 
and stupid all afternoon." This does not apply 
to one in whom the aquatic life has done its full 
work of regeneration. Constant intercourse with 
nature has banished conceit, and when afternoon 
comes he does as most other easy-going, sensible 
animals do, — deliberately goes to sleep and renews 
his stock of mental and physical vigor, — that is, if 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



127 



at anchor. If sailing, there can be no drowsiness 
by day or by night, short of absolute exhaustion. 
I am becoming each year less surprised at how 
little real good the majority of our health-seekers 
gain by their vacation. That they reap so little 
benefit, is simply, as a rule, because they have 
not earned it, and hence do not deserve it. The 
professional man, if he wants the vigor of the sailor 
who is with him, must do as the sailor does. One 
new muscular fibre is added to another, when by 
exercise we throw off the sloth-softened old ones. 

When one can hardly keep his conscience 
quiet, when it reproaches him for making his 
vacation unduly long, then he is in a fair way to 
accomplish something notable on his return to 
duty. This sense of wasting time is often the 
very best sign that vacation is doing a worthy and 
beneficent work. It tells how well the man has 
become, that he longs for activity in duty instead 
of longer rest. 

The jelly-fish exist by thousands in portions 
of the Choptank. They fairly swarmed around 
the boat. But, graceful and wonderful as they 
were to watch, they were nevertheless a nuisance, 
inasmuch as the daily bath was often postponed 



128 VACATION CRUISING IN 

because of them and their merited title, ''sea- 
nettles." The mode of reproduction of these soft 
animals is wonderful, and when first fully made 
known sounded almost as strange as a fairy tale. 
It has, however, been written again and again, and 
is in every *' Elementary Zoology ;" so that we 
refrain from giving its details here. 

The Choptank differs but little from the other 
rivers of the Chesapeake. Almost any one of them 
would afford a naturalist good working-ground 
for an entire season. There is, however, more 
monotony in the country bordering the Choptank 
than in that along the Patuxent, for the former is 
nearly a dead level. Yet to me there is a quiet 
charm about the many-armed Choptank, which 
makes me wish to spend a whole vacation on its 
waters. During the season there is, for those who 
care to catch them, an abundance of fish, crabs, and 
oysters. And during colder months water-fowl 
congregate there in vast numbers. 

The Choptank has for Pennsylvanians, and 
especially for those of them in sympathy with the 
Society of Friends, a special historical interest. 
Late in December, 1682, says Bancroft, " tired 
of useless debates, Penn crossed the Chesapeake, 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 129 

to visit Friends at Choptank, and returned to his 
own province prepared to renew negotiation, or to 
submit to arbitration in England" (" History of 
the United States," vol. ii. p. 125). The difficulty 
alluded, to grew out of settling the boundary line 
between Maryland and Pennsylvania. I have 
often been amused at a statement made by Alsop 
in times long antedating the American Revolution, 
— a statement which has all the characteristic 
truth and point, with none of the venom (or 
something worse) which so often appears in the 
scamp's doings and sayings, — " He that intends 
to court a Maryland girl must have something 
more than the tautologies of long-winded speech 
to carry on his designs." The brightness and 
unaffectedness of the modern representatives com- 
pel the belief that sham is as much despised by 
them as it was by their good mothers. 

Cambridge may be taken as a characteristic 
town of the Eastern Shore. To those who 
have, as we had, friends there, it is always a most 
delightful place to visit. When we say that on 
the Eastern Shore one finds more traces of the 
old colonial life and customs than elsewhere in 
Maryland, no disparagement is intended. On 



130 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



the contrary, we may be quite sure that the 
social habits and the hospitality, which form such 
striking reminders of earlier times, are real and 
most sincerely genuine, and are very certain to 
be impressed on the memory long after more 
formal meetings are forgotten. 

There is certainly a great future awaiting the 
Eastern Shore. The climate, soil, and situation 
all combine to make one think that its rejuvena- 
tion cannot be long delayed. During the past 
few years the new industry of oyster-canning has 
given some towns a most extraordinary impetus. 
I do not regard this, as it is now conducted, as 
likely to be of any great, permanent good, be- 
cause it must require but a few years to remove 
the oysters on which present" prosperity depends, 
unless oyster-raising becomes, as it may, a feasible 
thing. To this we shall allude later. But when 
I remember the agricultural capacity of the East- 
ern Shore I think its future is certain, simply 
because the rest of the country "hath need of 
it." I am convinced that in the next generation 
the owner of land on the Eastern Shore will be 
said to have, like the owner of a rich silver- 
mine in the West, " a sure thing." 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



131 



The early history of Maryland reveals some 
strange modes of aiding Church and State. Think 
of raising a church-rate by imposing a duty on 
tobacco ! I fear many sensitive mortals in these 
days would wash their hands clear of the con- 
tamination caused by touch of the funds. Yet 
when, in 1698, the Episcopal creed was the one 
recognized by law, the rate was so raised. Hawks, 
in his " Ecclesiastical Contributions," calls to mind 
another striking bit of legislation : In Maryland 
" the vestry of Port-Tobacco Parish imposed a 
tax on bachelors, and the Assembly confirmed it. 
It, at least, indicated the sense of the Legislature 
that it was a luxury to have no wife, and that 
the privilege ought to be paid for." These are 
mere remembrances of the past, only alluded to 
because they had well-nigh been forgotten, and 
because they may serve to illustrate the changing 
phases of human thought and morals. 

The yacht left Cambridge on the morning of July 
9th, — that was j ust before peaches were ripe. Hence 
we were prevented from seeing the shipment of the 
great peninsular crop. Peach season is, of all times, 
the one in which to visit the region. More infor- 
mation can be gained then than at any other time. 



132 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



We could notice a great change in the weather 
since we went down the bay a month earlier. Then 
the wind appeared to be continuous, or usually so, 
in one direction from early in the morning until 
towards evening. When we left Cambridge we 
found that the calms we had experienced off the 
mouth of the Potomac and in crossing from the 
Patuxent to the Eastern Shore were but the first 
of a series. From Cambridge up, we were reason- 
ably sure of a morning breeze (though often a 
very gentle one), then a noon-day calm, then more 
or less threatening weather towards evening. Not 
that evening always brought its squall, for it did 
not, but that it nearly always attempted to, — if 
such an expression be allowable. 

Starting from Cambridge at 9 a.m. with a fair 
breeze, which died out, it was full twelve hours 
before we dropped our anchor in the snug little 
harbor between Poplar Island and the main-land. 
I was particularly anxious for a good, rousing wind 
that day, as my friend. Captain Thomas Howard, 
was with me, and I wanted to show my little sloop 
to the best advantage. When we stopped for the 
night it was blowing hard from the south. The 
last two or three miles of our run were made before 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 133 

a wind under which the yacht fairly staggered; 
and as we passed over the shoal water in the dark- 
ness, before reaching our anchorage, I knew that 
if we made any mistake and ran aground, the mast 
would go like a reed in a hurricane. In spite of 
the wind, which whistled vigorously through the 
rigging, we lay down in a most comfortable frame 
of mind. We could feel the boat tugging away 
at the anchor, but having full confidence in the 
strength of our cable and in the holding power of 
the anchor, we could sleep undisturbed. 

Though I am one day late in doing so, I must 
here add, William Butler, Jr., of West Chester, 
had come on board at Cambridge to share the 
luck of the cruise with me.* 

Leaving Poplar Island next morning, we 
threaded our way out into the bay past the south- 
ern end of Kent Island. It should here be stated 
that a light-house has been erected within a few 
years on the end of the bar which " makes out" from 
the southern point of Kent. Outside of that bar 

* I will also state, that owing to news from home, Lew was 
obliged to leave me at Cambridge, In his stead I hired a 
colored man (Moses Robinson) for the rest of the summer. A 
more faithful servant no man was ever fortunate enough to have. 



134 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



is one of the deepest parts of the bay. My chart 
shows, for a single point there, eighteen fathoms. 

The low shores of Kent Island, in spite of their 
monotony, were very attractive. Besides this, toO; 
the island played a very important part in the 
early history of the country, being claimed both 
by Virginia and by Maryland. 

In 1 63 1* the Virginia Assembly sent a sur- 
veyor named William Clayborne to take posses- 
sion of the island. It was claimed both " by royal 
grant and by actual purchase from the Indians." 
It appears to have been occupied several years 
earlier by settlers and by Indian traders from Vir- 
ginia. Besides its fertility, its position from an 
offensive or defensive point of view, as well as its 
value as a trading-post, made both colonies eager 
to possess it. Clayborne was a resolute, and prob- 
ably a somewhat reckless, man, belonging to a 
class still largely represented in our frontier States. 
Things remained in an unsettled and somewhat 
threatening condition on the island until the spring 
of 1635, when Clayborne took steps which inau- 
gurated open hostilities. In the naval skirmish 

* There appears to be a little conflict of dates between Bancroft 
and Doyle on the Kent Island troubles. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



135 



which ensued, three Virginians and one Mary- 
lander were killed. Clayborne, being worsted, was 
obliged to leave the island. Maryland now took 
possession, and Captain Evelyn was made its gov- 
ernor. The inhabitants being mainly from Vir- 
ginia were naturally enough hostile to Maryland, 
and the new governor appears to have had any- 
thing but an amicable community to deal with. 
Accordingly, we find it was not long before he pro- 
claimed martial law. For a time, at least, there 
seems to have been no bloodshed, though it was 
necessary to refer the case to the home authorities 
in England. By them, after much debate, it was 
finally assigned to Maryland. In 1641, authority 
was given by Maryland to the Kent Islanders to 
wage war against the neighboring " Susquehan- 
nock" Indians, who had become exceedingly 
troublesome. At first, the relations between them 
and the islanders appear to have been of the most 
friendly character, but only for a time ; it was noth- 
ing but the inevitable conflict between a higher 
and an inferior race when brought into actual con- 
tact. One or the other must ultimately give way. 
About 1644 Clayborne renewed his attempt on 
Kent Island, and, after holding possession for a 



136 VACATION CRUISING IN 

year or two, was finally ejected by Calvert, of 
Maryland, who himself died very shortly after- 
wards ; and his death, as Bancroft tells us, " fore- 
boded for the colony new disasters" (/. ^., vol. i. p. 
192). 

From Kent Island across to Annapolis our run 
was short and pleasant. We reached our old 
anchorage there just about noon. After dinner 
Mr. B. and I went to the top of the State-house. 
When the gentlemanly janitor accorded this privi- 
lege, it was with the proviso that we should not 
use our pencils or knives on the building. Apart 
from the fact that we had no desire to leave any 
kind of a memorial of our visit, was the further 
fact that we could not have done so if we had de- 
sired, as previous visitors had already covered the 
dome with their scribbling. Adventurous, ambi- 
tious fellows had climbed, at the risk of their bones 
and lives, up under the timbers of the dome, and 
there marked or carved their names. Who can 
fathom the depth of human vanity ? The desire 
for such notoriety implies the lurking supposition 
that some one will care to read the inscription. 
As a rule, the less the importance of the scribbler 
the greater the desire for such immortality. To 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 137 

return to the dome, however. Such a panorama 
as we had there spread out below us is seldom 
to be seen. The country was looking its very- 
best. The reaped and the promised crops bespoke 
the fertility of the soil, just as the throng of 
small boats engaged in fishing, told how prolific 
the water was. Undulating hills, with valleys 
through which navigable streams ran, made a per- 
fect lowland landscape. Mountains near, or even 
remote but visible, might have made a stronger 
picture, though they could have added nothing 
to the calm, peaceful perfection of that landscape. 
I could have studied and enjoyed it day after day 
without weariness. 

The evening of the nth of July found us in 
Chester River, after a most wearisome drift across 
and up the bay. About four p.m. dark clouds 
came up in the south, and, anticipating a blow, 
we lowered away our sail to take in a double reef. 
This was hardly done before the squall was upon 
us. In a few minutes we had, for the river, very 
high waves, and, more than all, found that we had 
a lee-shore much nearer than we liked. However, 
the vessel carried her sail well, and we " clawed 

off" in good style. 

12* 



138 VACATION CRUISING IN 

Queenstown, in the southern bend of the river, 
was where we desired to anchor for the night. 
We succeeded, after getting aground, in working 
our way into the Httle harbor through a pro- 
vokingly narrow channel. The names of the 
towns on the Eastern Shore are strikingly sug- 
gestive of Old England : Queenstown, Oxford, 
Cambridge, Easton, Chester, all indicate pride 
in, and affection for, the mother-country. 

Sometimes for weeks the yachtsman has to do 
almost constantly with calm or squall, and the 
alternatives narrow down to drifting or scudding. 
We apparently had entered upon one of those 
trying periods. As we came out of Chester River, 
there was a bare suspicion of wind. No one could 
say where it came from, — first south, then west, 
then nowhere. After exercise of great patience 
and muscle we had worked, by three p.m., out into 
the bay again. Meanwhile, the clouds were piling 
up dark and threatening, and the falling barom- 
eter told that beyond doubt a storm was impend- 
ing. Together with these, there were obvious 
warnings — there was a peculiar, hazy atmosphere 
and an absolute stillness — which led us to think 
that when it did come, it would be severe. The 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 13^ 

cloud-bank moved, from the southeast, west, 
then toward the north, gathering, as it went, into 
a heavy, blue-gray or lead-colored (but not 
black) mass. There is something in waiting for 
such an onset not unlike the feeling with which 
the soldier waits for an enemy's charge. It was 
certain to come, and it was certain to be full of 
danger. Those who can best control their feelings 
are the most fortunate. The man who under such 
circumstances boasts that he has no fear is not so 
much to be envied for his supposed fortitude as 
pitied for his lack of truthfulness. 

There was a large schooner which came out 
of the river with us. She had headed northward 
for Baltimore, and we were endeavoring to enter 
Magothy* River, to the west. First we saw the 
schooner take down her topsail, then her fore- 
sail, then her jib, and then her mainsail. We 
knew that there was no time to waste. It was 
evident that the captain, looking to the wind- 
ward, had reason for his prompt action. So we 
lowered our jib and put a double reef in our main- 
sail. We hoped to carry enough of canvas to 
run into Magothy River. The bay was still as 

* Sometimes spelled Magotha ; at others, Magothy. 



140 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



calm as a mill-pond after we had shortened sail. 
But in a few minutes, darkness suddenly shut the 
schooner to the north of us out from view. In 
an instant later the rush of the wind was upon us. 
The stanch little boat endured the tremendous 
strain so bravely that we were at once reassured 
as to her seaworthiness ; and she held her way 
toward the harbor. " Mose" braced himself 
against the tiller, and, though a powerful man, it 
required all his strength to keep the boat from 
luffing, as her jib was down. In less than five 
minutes the waves were breaking over us, and 
the spray dashed into our faces until we were no 
longer able to endure it. If we could have stood 
at our posts the boat would have gone safely into 
the Magothy River. But we could not, and there 
was nothing left for us to do, except to lower the 
mainsail and go to the southward, under bare 
poles, before the wind. This had become the 
more necessary as we were now among larger 
vessels, all of which were scudding. Hence, if 
for no other reason than to keep out of their 
way, we were obliged to do likewise. 

The intensity of the wind did not last more 
than twenty minutes; but while it did last our 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 141 

Speed was fearful. To make matters worse, we 
were towing the yawl-boat, which ran up on to us 
and would drive its iron-clad bow into the stern 
of the yacht with tremendous force. As the 
darkness " lifted," we saw coming down astern of 
us a large schooner. To keep out of its way, the 
jib was hoisted. It was impossible to prevent the 
yacht from "yawing" when she rose on the waves, 
and then the jib would fly from side to side until 
each time the sheet tightened it made our heavy 
bowsprit quiver like a reed. Soon after, we 
hoisted the peak of the mainsail. We soon saw 
that there was no danger now so long as we kept 
going before the wind, for, in spite of the high 
seas which followed us, not a drop of water came 
on board after we headed south. The buoyancy 
of the boat was wonderful. And, from that day 
forth, I felt that my yacht more than compensated 
for being slower than some others, by being safer. 
The iron ballast, low down and well fastened, 
evidently, was just where it was doing the most 
good. 

In an hour it was all over ; and, under all sail, 
we were heading for Annapolis Harbor. We could 
now look around and see the damage done by the 



142 VACATION CRUISING IN 

squall. Several vessels, whose sails had been 
split, were repairing damages. Others, like our- 
selves, were hunting an anchorage. Just as the 
sun went down we dropped our anchor in the 
same snug berth that we had left two days before. 

Looking back on this squall, I can now only . 
regard it as a small cyclone, — at least, having its 
revolving character. Before it disappeared the 
clouds were again back in the south. The rain, 
though heavy, was not in proportion to the wind. 

Viewing these storms, after several seasons of 
cruising, I am more than ever surprised that a 
good barometer is not regarded as an essential 
part of every vessel's outfit. I am safe in the asser- 
tion that mine never once deceived me during all 
the time I had been using it, and that it has often 
put me in a safe position by its timely warning. 
Once, indeed, taking advantage of its indications, 
we sought shelter through a gale which strewed 
the bay with wrecks, and which cost many human 
lives within a few miles of where we lay in quiet. 
It may appear like a waste of words to urge this 
subject, but, knowing that many yachting-parties 
never include this instrument among their effects, 
I wish to say that when I claim small vessels may 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 143 

undertake long voyages, I only do so when this 
instrument is on board and all due precautions 
have been taken. Anything short of this is 
simple foolhardiness, which nothing can justify 
or extenuate. 

" Mose" proved to be a character, — huge of 
frame, of unbounded good-nature, and possessed 
of such a fund of unusual expressions, which he 
used without the slightest regard to their meaning, 
that we were kept in perpetual laughter. His pa- 
tience knew no limit. He would sit by the hour 
untangling the " worst snarled" gill-net, and im- 
mediately go through the same work again if 
from carelessness or clumsiness one of us tangled 
it a second time. " There," said he, as he opened 
a mass of knots which had tried him for half an 
hour, " I'se got one more aggrawate out on it." 
He serves to. illustrate forcibly what education is 
doing for the colored people. " Ef I only had the 
larnin' my brother has I'd be satisfied." The 
brother is younger than " Mose," and conse- 
quently his school-days came in later, more fortu- 
nate times. Under my tuition he wrestled with the 
alphabet and with the task of writing his name. 
His success will be measured entirely by his per- 



144 VACATION CRUISING IN 

severance. His respect for the barometer is in- 
finite. " Dem little tell-tales, — I'se seed 'em before. 
It's time to hunt a harber when dey says so." 
His cooking is cleanly done, and the galley is 
always in order. Both of these features are much 
more than mere taste. They make yachting more 
comfortable, and even make our simple fare more 
homelike.. 

The day after the squall we started again to 
go up the bay. Leaving Annapolis early in the 
morning, the breeze, though ahead, was promising 
enough, so far as its strength was concerned, but 
on our very first tack it died away entirely, and we 
drifted hopelessly. About two o'clock it revived 
just a little, and we headed for Magothy River. 
By dint of hard rowing, we at last rounded Sandy 
Point, and then reached the mouth of the river. 
Then turning south into Deep Creek we anchored 
for the night. For small craft, a more desirable 
haven than this could not well be found. Later 
in the evening I discovered that the water was as 
well stocked with pickerel as the shore was with 
wood-ticks. The channel had from six to eight 
feet of water in it, but along-shore it was shallow 
and muddy. In the shoal water the interesting 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



145 



"water-weed" {Anacharis Canadensis) was grow- 
ing in the greatest profusion, and as we rowed 
through the tangled mass the startled pickerel 
could be seen darting on all sides of us. The 
plant was in full bloom. Female flowers could be 
found in abundance, but no male flowers, though 
we made most diligent search for them. Though 
one of the commonest plants, this shows some of 
the most striking vital phenomena. It is hardly 
a fanciful statement to say that we can see it in 
the very act of living. Place a single fresh leaflet 
under a microscope which magnifies about five 
hundred diameters, and you can plainly see the 
fluids in the cells rotating up one side and down 
the other, showing that the very foundation — or, 
rather, essence — of life is motion. It is a fresh 
illustration of Ritter's celebrated statement, that 
" life is simply a change of relation." In the ex- 
pansion of this generalization he did not limit 
himself to what we call living things, but, with a 
more than poetic truth, applied it to the action and 
reaction of one portion of the globe upon another. 
The male flowers of this plant are so rare that it 
is evident its increase is not limited to the usual 

mode by seeds. Apparently, wherever its joints 
G k 13 



146 VACATION CRUISING IN 

touch the earth new root may be taken. Years 
ago it was introduced into Europe, where it has 
become a serious pest by its rapid growth and by its 
tendency to choke up the water-courses. It even 
impedes navigation on the European canals. Dur- 
ing the middle of July you see, as I have said, 
abundance of the female flowers. They attract 
attention by their long, thread-like tubes and ex- 
serted, knob-like stigmas. But the male flowers, — 
where are they ? Seldom seen, but, when found, 
are usually separated from the plant which pro- 
duced them. Chance floats, perhaps one out of 
many, past a female flower of another plant, and 
so by the accomplished act of fertilization the life 
and vigor of the species are maintained. We like 
to believe, with most of the botanists, that a cross- 
ing of the sexual elements of different individuals 
of the same plant species is the condition upon 
which a long-enduring vigor depends. So, doubt- 
less, it is in most instances. But how are we to 
explain the amazing reproductive power of the 
plant in European waters, where no male flower 
has ever been found ? The eel-grass is a much 
more conspicuous example of this separation and 
floating of the male flowers. Yet, uncertain as 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



147 



such a mode of fertilization must be, I was amazed 
at the number of fecundated, seed containing ova- 
ries which I found among Anacharis. 

The chief productions of the region appeared 
to be melons, peaches, and " garden truck." Prox- 
imity to Baltimore doubtless made such interests 
very lucrative there. The busy freighting-season 
for these productions was just coming on, and it 
was with difficulty that I convinced one farmer 
that I could not be induced to do his carrying for 
him. 

The morning of July 14 was clear, and gave 
no indication, by barometer or otherwise, of an 
impending storm. By five a.m. we were well 
started, — that is, in the absence of the wind we 
went out, like Barkis, " with the tide." But we 
were no sooner in the bay than a nice breeze 
sprang up. It bore promise on its wings, for it 
was none of those puffy winds which we had felt 
so often before, but a steady, constantly strength- 
ening one that intimated its full intention of re- 
maining with us for the day. It increased as the 
sun rose. Before ten o'clock, however, dark 
clouds were in the west, and the barometer gave 
undoubted signs of a coming storm. As far as 



148 VACATION CRUISING IN 

we could see to the south the vessels were " hold- 
ing the wind." This encouraged us to think 
that this same friendly breeze would last until we 
reached Still Pond Harbor before the storm came. 
Swan Point was left behind us, and in a couple of 
hours more we passed Worton's Creek ; then we 
rounded the point and stood in for Still Pond. 
We had the usual difficulty in getting over the 
bar, and working through the narrow inlet to the 
pond. But we succeeded, and by one o'clock we 
had two anchors out and sails all snugly stowed. 
Then we went below, — " Mose" to preparing din- 
ner, and we to preparing for an " afternoon fish'* 
after the storm was over. So far as the ordinary 
dangers of navigation were concerned, we had 
passed out of them when we entered our harbor. 
It was astonishing to see how little impression the 
wind made on the boat where she lay ; but, look- 
ing outside, we could see others tossing furiously 
on the waves. The rain was severe, and the wind 
too, though the latter was nothing like that of 
two days before. During the afternoon we had 
a succession of thunder-storms. The play of the 
lightning was very grand. Both zigzag and 
sheet lightning illuminated the heavens. As we 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



149 



watched, we could see tall spires and ruined build- 
ings, even, represented in the fiery shapes on the 
sky. Afloat or ashore, it matters not : man lives 
more during an hour of storm than during any 
other equal period. His own utter weakness and 
the unlimited power of the elements, both, force 
themselves upon his mind. There is no escape 
from either. He need not be an abject, cringing 
coward to realize both to the fullest extent. On 
the contrary, he may be a brave man, and one full 
of good faith and of good deeds, and still these 
feelings will rise and overwhelm him. A thunder- 
storm is a rich experience, — one well worth living 
through. 

On our way up from Magothy we met the 
"John McClintock Yacht Club," bound down the 
bay. As they were from Philadelphia, we could 
not refrain from saluting them, though our ves- 
sel was very diminutive alongside of theirs. The 
salute was returned in the most cordial and gen- 
tlemanly manner. Wishing each other a successful 
voyage, we held our courses and were soon out 
of sight. These yachting-parties, where congenial 
friends hire a good vessel and at a minimum of 
expense get a maximum of rational recreation, 
13* 



ISO 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



are becoming much more frequent. They are 
also creating a just public sentiment in favor of 
aquatic sports. There was a time, not many- 
years ago, when to be a yachtsman was entirely 
synonymous with being a blackguard, in the eyes 
of many well-thinking persons ; and, to tell the 
truth, this imputation was too often deserved. 
He who wrote " Rob Roy on the Jordan" did 
missionary work, both when he distributed tracts 
and alms among the poverty-stricken souls, and 
when he sailed his little yacht, — no less in the 
one case than in the other. He preached salva- 
tion to soul and body both. 

There is needed, now, a book describing the 
models of small craft peculiar to our American 
coast, with a clear statement of the merits and 
defects of each. It should also give descriptions 
of the most suitable waters for sailing in at each 
season, along with some statements concerning 
the historical and other attractions of each harbor 
likely to be visited. To the above might be added 
a very interesting chapter on the most important 
voyages undertaken in small vessels. The fact is, 
that in this age of huge ships size has come to 
be regarded as the sole measure of safety. We 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 151 

forget, however, in what small vessels the men 
of earlier days made the most notable maritime 
discoveries. Leaving out of sight the probable 
discovery of this continent by the Northmen, in 
open boats, long anterior to the days of Columbus, 
we have Irving's statements concerning the vessels 
of the great admiral : " Three small vessels were 
apparently all that he (Columbus) had requested 
Two of them were light barks, called ' caravels,' 
not superior to river and coasting craft of more 
modern days. Representatives of this class of 
vessels exist in old prints and paintings. They 
were delineated as open, and without deck in the 
centre, but built up high at the prow and stern, 
with forecastles and cabins for the accommoda- 
tion of the crew. Peter Martyr, the learned con- 
temporary of Columbus, says that only one of 
the three vessels was decked. The smallness of 
the vessels was considered an advantage by Co- 
lumbus in a voyage of discovery, enabling him 
to run close to the shores, and to enter shallow 
rivers and harbors. In his third voyage, when 
coasting the Gulf of Paria, he complained of the 
size of his ship, being nearly a hundred tons 
burthen. But that such long and perilous expe- 



152 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



ditions into unknown seas should be undertaken 
in vessels without decks, and that they should 
live through the violent tempests, by which they 
were frequently assailed, remain among the sin- 
gular circumstances of these daring voyages." 

Of Magellan's fleet, which started to circum- 
navigate the globe, the largest vessel was the 
" Trinidad," of but one hundred tons. Two were 
but sixty; and it was the "Victoria," one of the 
smallest, which brought back the news that the 
great deed had been done. Vasco da Gama's 
vessels were of only one hundred and twenty 
tons each. Martin Frobisher crossed the Atlantic, 
and entered the sub-Arctic strait, which has since 
borne his name, with two vessels which were of 
twenty-five tons each, and with a pinnace of ten 
tons. Now, that a steamer of less than three 
thousand tons' burden has almost come to be 
regarded as too small safely to cross the ocean, it 
may be well to make the following extract from 
the Lo7idon Times ^ of May ii, 1 8 19: 

" Great Experiment. — A new steam-vessel of three hundred 
tons has been built at New York^ for the express purpose of car- 
rying passengers across the Atlantic. She is to come to Liverpool 
direct." 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, 



153 



This vessel, the "Savannah," started from the 
city of the same name on May 22d or 25th, and 
came to anchor off Liverpool on June 20th. Of 
this time, she was under steam eighteen days. 

That same needed book should, for the benefit 
of amateurs, also give some history of the nautical 
terms most in use. Their study would serve to 
relieve the monotony of many an otherwise dull 
hour. Many of the words now so glibly used 
have come down to us through centuries ante- 
dating England's rule over the waves. Some 
of them were in common use from Denmark 
through Scandinavia even to Iceland, and all, 
without doubt, had a real meaning when coined, 
even though we now fail to recognize their origin. 
Take, for example, the word " starboard," which 
meant originally the side of the boat on which 
the steersman stood. It traces its origin to a time 
so remote that, instead of a rudder, the boat was 
steered with a paddle, or an oar, as much smaller 
ones are to this day. " Keel," in primitive form, 
appears in the old Danish and Swedish, and prob- 
ably, from the former of those languages, was 
taken into the English. " Kelson," or " keelson," 
is merely a derivative from " keel." Our modern 



154 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



word " schooner" is supposed to have originated 
in 17 1 3 at Gloucester, in Massachusetts, where 
the first vessel of this class was launched. It is 
true that the name was then given because of a 
remark made by one of the witnesses to the 
launch. " See how she scoons !" said he as the 
vessel slid into the water. Hence our word 
" schooner," or, as first spelled, " scooner." But 
there is an old verb, — " scoon," which means " to 
glide swiftly," and it was this which the uninten- 
tional christener of the schooner used. 

Angling and shooting each have a literature, — 
one containing volumes which are classic in our 
language. Why should yachting not have? 
Under title of "Yachting in Blue Waters," 
there is an article in Harper's Monthly Magazine 
for the year 1877, by Mr. Warren. I cannot for- 
bear quoting from it: 

" Yachting is undeniably looked upon by the 
mass of the community in the light not only of a 
slothful and luxurious pastime, but as an actual 
waste of time ; yet it is none the less true, that 
the larger number of those who cruise upon 
blue water are men of positive character, who, 
becoming impatient of the humdrum conven- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 155 

tionalities of society, prefer to assert their man- 
hood in contention with the elements. And 
these men, who may have been skirmishers on the 
outposts of science, are not infrequently, by the 
very nature of their new pursuit, drawn within its 
charmed circle, and by their observations and 
experiments become important contributors to it." 

If this form of recreation has anything in it 
better than the old-time regattas, and their too 
often disgraceful associations (which I think it 
has), then by all means let us have it out. 

Sailors' expressions are often full of quaint 
humor. During one of our prolonged drifts, when 
there was no wind, " Mose" took our long oars 
and went vigorously to work. " Cap'n Will," 
said he, addressing Mr. B., " dis is what we sailor 
men calls a woodin wind ; but when we gets into 
de yawl-boat and goes ahead with a line and tows 
de ship, dat is a buggy-ride. You think makin' a 
woodin wind is hard work, but it ain't nuthin' to a 
buggy-ride." 

Darkness came on at Still Pond before the net 
was placed as we desired. Though the next 
morning, one twenty-inch pickerel showed that 
during the month between our first and second 



156 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



visits to the place the supply had not been ex- 
hausted. 

There are fated spots sailors think. I never, 
save once, have gone from Still Pond to the mouth 
of the Elk that I did not have to drift, or, at most, 
to sail with barely enough of wind to give us 
" steerage-way." My last trip up, over the same 
water, was no exception. Hour after hour the 
surface of the bay was undisturbed by any 
breeze whatever. Our only comfort lay in the 
fact, well known to sailors, that some boats drift 
better than others, and we had the satisfaction of 
being among the best in that kind of navigation. 
Later at night, on July 15th, we anchored in Elk 
River, — still in sight of our starting-point in the 
morning. The rising sun of the following day 
brought with it a moderate breeze, before which 
we made our way through Back Creek to 
Chesapeake City. 

In spite of its storms and its calms, its over- 
dreaded mosquitoes, and its alleged malaria, I 
have come to think of the Chesapeake Bay as my 
sanitarium. I know that I come back from my 
trips there stronger than when I start on them. 
It is a soul-expanding process simply to gaze out 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



157 



on the water, to study the features of the head- 
lands, and to conjecture in what time and by what 
agencies they were formed. 

Who does not dread the Chesapeake and Dela- 
ware Canal, if he has any regard for his own 
vessel ? Mine fared probably as well as small 
craft usually do in making the transit from bay to 
bay. The helmsman of a canal-boat managed to 
jam my yacht against the rocks of the tow-path, 
much to the injury of her planking. However, 
his associates remarked, by way of apology, " the 
fellow is only half-witted." I did not see that the 
explanation made the rent in the plank smaller. 

It was a relief to be *' locked out" into Delaware 
Bay, though our welcome there was a stormy one. 
Hardly were our sails up before the usual after- 
noon clouds warned us to prepare. This time, 
however, the barometer did not indicate anything 
heavy as likely to reach us. The yacht was kept 
on her course until we passed the black buoy, 
midway between Delaware City and New Castle. 
Rounding this, we dropped anchor in two and a 
half fathoms of water. By the time the sails were 
down and stowed, the storm had reached us. It 
was more severe by far than I anticipated from the 



158 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



slight warning given by my barometer. This was 
the only time that I was ever misled by its indica- 
tions in the slightest degree ; and it should be said 
that it did fall some, though not in proportion, I 
thought, to the severe "blow" which followed. The 
wind came from the west, and the tide was running 
out very rapidly; so we lay in a direction diagonal 
to the two forces, and, as a consequence, were con- 
siderably tossed by the waves. Our big anchor, 
which had always held well hitherto, was dragged, 
and to prevent being carried out into the channel 
we were obliged to let the other one go also. 
Together, the anchors held us firmly, and we went 
below to dine and ride out the storm. 

My somewhat tempestuous trip up the Chesa- 
peake had made certain points more clear to me. 
As between the English yacht and the American, 
we may say that the former is an infinitely better 
sea-boat. The English vessel is characterized by 
greater draught of water and by correspondingly 
less beam. It carries its ballast as low down as 
possible, and much of it in the form of a keel of 
lead or iron outside. The American vessel, on the 
contrary, is characterized by less depth and greater 
beam, with but little ballast as compared with the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 159 

deeper boat. It is simply astonishing with what 
impunity the Englishman goes to sea in his very 
small craft. On the mere score of safety in rough 
water, sudden squalls, and in "clawing off" a lee- 
shore, beyond doubt, the English model is the 
safer one. The Englishman sails where he will 
in safety ; the American goes where he can, often 
at considerable risk. It is to be remembered, 
however, that our shoal vessels come, to a certain 
extent, from the character of the waters in which 
we sail. Many of the most desirable places, to 
me at least, could only be reached in a vessel draw- 
ing less than four feet of water. 

But, then, have we not gone from one extreme 
to another? Is there no compromise possible 
between English depth and narrowness, on the 
one hand, and American shallowness and breadth, 
on the other ? Whatever else may be justified in 
the model, the prodigious spars and sails under 
which most of our yachts stagger are absolutely 
dangerous, and should be discountenanced by all 
yachtsmen who would do more than limit them- 
selves to an occasional regatta. The question of 
"rig" appears until very recently to have been 
limited, with us, to one of two kinds for small 



l6o VACATION CRUISING IN 

boats, — i.e.y the sloop and the cat-boat. For any- 
thing over twenty feet keel the latter of these may 
be regarded as about the worst possible form, 
sacrificing every other good quality to simple 
convenience. The sloop will still have many 
stanch friends, in spite of the signal victories 
which the cutter has so recently won among us. 
Were I yachting in waters where great draught 
was no objection, I should, beyond all question, 
prefer the cutter rig; but in either Delaware or 
Chesapeake Bay I think the yawl is to be the 
small boat of the future. So far as I know, there 
is but one yawl on the Delaware waters. Of 
course, he who introduces such a rig must expect 
to bear the cheap wisdom of " the rule o' thumb" 
men. The sufficient answer to all their objections 
is, that in England, in Boston, in New York, and 
in San Francisco, the yawl rig has been tried, and 
its merits too fully tested and too widely ap- 
proved to leave any doubt as to its safety, con- 
venience, and ease of working. We might define 
the yawl to be a modified schooner, whose fore- 
boom came aft as far as the rudder-stock, and that 
aft of the rudder-stock was inserted a mast for a 
sail whose area should not be greater than that of 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. i6l 

the jib. The special advantages of this rig are, 
first, safety in case of sudden squalls, for by letting 
the mainsail {i.e., foresail) come down on the run, 
the mizzen and jib still set, leave you under storm 
canvas at once, with which the boat can be readily 
managed ; or, second, if either of the other sails 
be damaged, the boat under foresail alone, does 
well ; or, third, if the rudder be unshipped at sea, 
the boat can be worked into harbor by slacking, 
or hauling the mizzen aft. It should be said that 
this has been done more than once. 

The illustration (p. 162), from Forest and Stream^ 
will show at a glance the whole plan and mode 
of working. A yawl of thirty feet deck need not 
draw over three feet and a half of water, and still 
be a thoroughly safe boat. Add to this, the fact 
that in most cases, if absolutely required, one man 
could manage her. If the yawl had no other ad- 
vantage than the ease with which her sails can be 
reefed, that alone would compensate for, the very 
small loss of speed which is alleged to exist when 
compared with the sloop. 

The great mission of single-hand yachting is to 

take a legitimate, healthful recreation out of the 

hands of hirelings and " professionals," and make 
I 14* 



1 62 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



it tributary to the growth of character and strength 
in the yacht-owner. It is interesting to read in 
this connection the following extract, taken at 




CRUISING RIG OF *' CANNET YAWL. 

second hand from what Dr. Waldstein, of the 
University of Cambridge, had to say on a closely- 
related subject before his institution : 



" The same causes which led to the growth of individualism 
affected the great change in the spirit of athletic institutions. 
While before they were a means to a great political and social 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 163 

end, they now become ends in themselves to which all other con- 
siderations become subservient. While before athletic exercise 
was a part of the daily occupation of the Greek youth, which was 
meant to contribute its share to the great end of making him a 
sound and normal being, harmoniously developed both in mind 
and body, and thus a serviceable citizen to his state, it now, step 
by step, becomes itself the great aim to which time, life, and aspi- 
rations of the youth are devoted, and to which they are made 
subservient. It is the step recurring in the history of athletic 
games in all times, — the step from the gentleman athlete to the 
professional athlete. In art we see the signs of the loss of propor- 
tion in such works, which increase in the next period. We hear 
from ancient authorities how pugilists and pancreatists were fat- 
tened up and made bulky, how muscular development was exag- 
gerated even to ugliness. In the mythical figure most imme- 
diately influenced by athletic art, in Hercules, we see this in 
later instances, where the muscular development is abnormal and 
repulsive. The germs of the rapid decline of this great institu- 
tion are to be found in the fungus growth of its own importance, 
growing till it obscured the great aim which gave it life and char- 
acterized its highest development. It leads to degeneration, or, 
as the pathologist would more accurately term it, to hypertrophy. 
Let me only bring before you one interesting instance to illustrate 
this step towards professional athleticism. This coin of Amyntas 
III., of Macedon, who reigned from 389 to 369 B.C., representing 
a horse with its rider, is typical in one respect of all similar repre- 
sentations before the middle of the fourth century b.c, namely, 
in respect of the relation of rider and horse, and of the corre- 
sponding importance of both in the mind of the people of that 
time. Like all representations of riders down to the middle of 



l64 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the fourth century, the rider is here large in comparison with the 
horse. If now we turn to this coin of Philip of Macedon, there 
is a striking difference in this respect, the horse being dispropor- 
tionately large, while the rider has dwindled down to an under- 
grown jockey. The whole matter is explained by the fact that this 
coin of Philip represents his racer whom he sent to Olympia, and 
who there came out the winner. Now, in the previous periods 
it was for the rider's sake that horse -racing existed ; it was to show 
and encourage his skill in horsemanship, and he got the glory ; 
there existed no jockeys. In the time of Philip the horse became 
the great centre of interest, and the gentleman rider and warrior 
of the Parthenon frieze is no longer to be found at Olympia. In 
the course of this natural or unnatural selection the horse, too, has 
altered its form, merely to excel in fleetness. It is curious to 
consider how similar the action of these * laws' has been in 
ancient and in modem times. Thus, not only with the human 
form, but even with animals, the course taken by the athletic 
games in the later periods tended to destroy the ideal of form 
established, during the great age of Greek culture, by art through 
the earlier influence of the same institution. . . . 

" The history of the Greek boxing-gloves, the l/xdvrec, typifies 
and illustrates the three chief phases in the history of the palsestra, 
from its height to its decline. The earliest form were the /iet?ix<^i, 
which were to soften the blow to the striker and the one struck, 
and were thus subservient to the exercise. The second f«rm was 
the Ifiug b^q, a leather thong wound round the hand, protecting 
the hand of the striker, but increasing the severity of the blow. 
This belongs to the period when professional athleticism was be- 
ginning to be introduced. The third form, marking the period 
of decline, the Graeco-Roman and Roman age, was the brutal 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 165 

csestus, garnished with leaden balls, which produced disfiguring 
blows, sometimes leading to death." 



The application of the above extract is neither 
"far-fetched" nor difficult to see. We desire a 
generation of men and citizens with the physical 
proportions and mental qualities of the Greek in 
the days of Amyntas, instead of the jockey who 
dwarfed the master to less than his own size, or 
instead of the beast who wore the caestus for the 
pleasure of a patron of worse morals even than 
himself. 



1 66 VACATION CRUISING IN 



CHAPTER IV. 

CRUISING ON THE DELAWARE RIVER AND BAY. 

This chapter is intended not as a mere "log" 
of our trips up and down the Delaware, but 
rather as a general statement of such facts of 
interest as came under the author's observation. 
It will also give some points which may be of 
service to other amateurs who undertake to man- 
age their own boats when sailing in the same 
waters. It is, it is true, only amateur advice, but 
then, for that reason, is likely to touch the very 
points upon which the holiday cruiser wants in- 
formation most, and which a veteran sailor would 
be most likely to pass over in silence. 

Comparing the Chesapeake with the Delaware, 
each bay has peculiarities of its own. If the 
former has heavier squalls, the latter has swifter 
tides, which prevent your going against the current, 
unless the wind is fair. But the Delaware has its 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 167 

full share of squalls, for, as already stated, the first 
hour we sailed in it, after coming through the 
canal, we encountered a heavy " blow." 

The Delaware, though all harbor, so far as 
good -sized vessels are concerned, has but few 
of the cosey nooks which characterize the Chesa- 
peake, and into which small vessels may creep 
for a night of quietness and safety. True, there 
are many small rivers and numberless small 
sloughs opening into the Delaware, where we 
could go and be out of harm's way, but they 
did not attract me as did the little resting-places 
of the other bay. 

On July 2 1st we ran up the river to Camden, 
and by two p.m. were at anchor at Cooper's Point, 
from which we had started more than a month 
before. Our good little boat was cordially wel- 
comed back among the others of the same class. 

No one, of course, cares to contemplate what 
may happen after he has seriously determined 
upon a trip. It was a satisfaction to be back 
again at our starting-point. It was, furthermore, 
a greater satisfaction to think that the trip was 
made under circumstances which certain wise 
heads had regarded as unfavorable. I only refer 



1 68 VACATION CRUISING IN 

to this to point the moral that risk is determined 
as much by the individual as by the circum- 
stances. A better sailor could have gone to the 
James and back in a much smaller boat ; a worse 
one (if he could be found) might have been lost 
in a much larger vessel, in no worse weather than 
we encountered. Next to having a tight, strong, 
well-ballasted vessel, and one obedient to her 
helm, the yachtsman must be temperate and 
prudent if he expects the air and exercise to do 
their best for him. 

I clip the following from the Philadelphia Ledger 
for July 24th : 

[Special Dispatch to the Public Ledger^ 
A VIOLENT STORM AT ASBURY PARK. 

AsBURY Park, N. J., July 23. — A violent storm burst over 
this place at half-past three o'clock this p.m., doing damage to 
the extent of tv/enty thousand dollars. The rain fell so heavily 
that the air seemed filled with spray, and it was almost impossible 
to distinguish objects twenty feet ahead. Tin roofs were carried 
away like so much paper, and shingles and trees were blown in 
every direction. The Howard, Gilsey, Barrett, and Sunset 
Hotels were entirely unroofed, and the Madison and Princeton 
Hotels were badly damaged. Six tents and some outbuildings 
at Ocean Grove were levelled to the ground. Boats were lifted 
from the water of Sunset Lake and blown some distance upon 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. i6q 

the land. Seven teams were upset near the lake. Lamp-posts 
were wrecked everywhere, and chimneys were blown down on 
many private cottages. It was bathing-hour, and hundreds of 
people were in the surf. There were several narrow escapes 
from drowning, but only one life was lost, — that of a colored 
waiter at one of the hotels, who was blown out to sea. A boat 
containing two boys was capsized, but they were rescued. The 
telegraph wires were blown down between this place and Ocean 
Grove. Windows were broken everywhere, and the streets are 
littered with broken limbs of trees. The storm lasted about half 
an hour. 



My object in making this extract is because 
of its association with certain somewhat unusual 
phenomena, — that is, unusual from the popular 
way of looking at them. For several days past 
my aneroid barometer on the yacht had been 
unusually high. On the morning of the 23d it 
had gone down to 30 inches ; by noon it stood 
at 29.95. At three p.m. it began to rise slightly, 
and in two hours there was a calm. During the 
height of " the blow" at Asbury Park the yacht 
was anchored a few miles above Chester, waiting 
for the wind to subside. 

We had left Camden at ten a.m. of that day 
with a strong, but somewhat puffy, wind from the 
northward, and hence astern of us. In three- 
H 15 



I^O VACATION CRUISING IN 

quarters of an hour it had gone around enough 
to have become a head-wind, and as such it con- 
tinued the rest of the day, — so long, at least, as 
it blew at all. 

West Chester (Pennsylvania) is situated, say 
fifteen miles in an air-line from Chester, and my 
friend. Dr. George Martin, residing in the former 
place, has kindly furnished me the mean standing 
of his barometer (after it was reduced to the sea- 
level) for several days before the storm. Thus, for 



July 


17th it 


was 


29-943 


inches. 


a 


1 8th « 


« 


30.108 


(( 


te 


19th " 


(( 


30.133 




it 


20th " 


« 


30.178 




t< 


2ISt " 


<c 


30.198 




(( 


22d " 


(( 


30.062 




t( 


23d " 


(( 


29.929 





These figures bring out very forcibly a fact well 
known to scientific men, but not sufficiently ap- 
preciated by many who have barometers in their 
houses, or on their yachts, — that a marked sudden 
rise, as well as a fall, may be the precursor of a 
storm. In other words, to speak more generally, 
it indicates an atmospheric change, which is 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 171 

usually followed by more or less of a storm about 
the time that the index or mercury has fairly com- 
menced to fall to a lower figure. This, too, is true 
even if a figure not lower than the mean standard 
of the place is reached. 

It may be noted that the storm, the account of 
which I have taken from the Ledger^ was not 
associated with a great fall at Philadelphia, Ches- 
ter, or West Chester. It would be interesting to 
know the readings of the instrument at Asbury 
Park the day of, and a few days previous to, the 
storm there. 

There is apt to be somewhat of excitement 
connected with yachting on the edge of a storm. 
One may fail to recognize how heavy the wind is, 
so long as his boat behaves well. I was under no 
apprehension, but, remembering now how fiercely 
the wind whistled through the rigging, I am per- 
suaded that most people would have regarded it 
as quite strong. At all events, it blew hard 
enough to make us drag our best anchor more 
than half-way across the river ; yet, there was 
no marked fall in the barorneter where we were.* 

*So thoroughly am I impressed with the importance of this 
subject that I make the following clear extract from "The 



1^2 VACATION CRUISING IN 

Up to this point not a single word has been 
said about the mistakes made in sailing. Possibly 
the reader might be deluded into the idea that the 
writer is an accomplished practical sailor. As a 
matter of fact, he is nothing of the kind. My 
object in buying and in owning a boat was to be- 
come a more practical waterman. Day after day 
I blundered on, making mistakes both numerous 
and humiliating ; but there is virtue in persistency. 
These blunders became less frequent as the season 
went on. Occasionally a mud-bank would get on 
the wrong side of the yacht, and we would stick 
fast there until liberated by the friendly tide. 
This occurred at Chester when two friends were 

Sailor's Handy Book and Yachtman's Manual," by E, F. 
Qualtrough, Master, U.S.N. : " A sudden rise of the barome- 
ter is very nearly as bad a sign as a sudden fall, because it shows 
that atmospherical equilibrium is unsteady. In an ordinar)- gale 
the wind often blows hardest when the barometer is just begin- 
ning to rise, directly after having been very low." 

" Besides these rules for the instrument, there is a rule about 
the way in which the wind changes which is very important. It 
is well known to every sailor, and is contained in the following 
couplet : 

" « When the wind shifts against the sun, 
Trust it not, for back it will run,' " 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



173 



along, who charitably held their peace, even 
though they must have thought hard things of 
the awkwardness which deprived them of several 
hours of fine sailing. To be sure, these were 
tribulations ; but I count the ability to manage 
my own yacht cheaply earned, even through such 
blunders. There is no position more pitiable than 
that of the boat-owner who must become the 
servant of a sailing-master. Therefore, command 
your own boat, and inform the professional water- 
man, who applies, that what you want is not a cap- 
tain, but a cook. It might fairly be assumed that 
any educated man can soon learn as much as one 
of less education, and that to sail a yacht it is not 
absolutely requisite to forget all else besides. The 
one great charm in single-handed yachting is that 
whatever you want done, you must do for yourself, 
even if you have first to learn how. 

After six or seven weeks of sailing I found that 
I had been so completely fascinated by my vaca- 
tion freedom as to have neglected to keep the run 
of events. There had been several murders and 
defalcations, and the Pennsylvania Republican 
Convention had been held since I had read a 

newspaper. I knew nothing whatever of these 
15* 



1^4 VACATION CRUISING IN 

affairs ; in which I was probably just like the great 
mass of mankind. So I came to understand how 
the world and its inhabitants can continue to exist, 
the one as serene in its motion, and the other as 
happy and as pure in their morals, even if the 
flood-gates of human iniquity are not opened for 
them daily by the early newsboy. 

The ravages of the cholera in Egypt first came 
to my knowledge on the 26th of July. Anchored 
above Chester, we could see the quarantine " Vis- 
itor" come down the river, and could watch the 
health-ofiicer board the in-coming vessels. That 
boat is the thin wall which cuts Philadelphia off 
from the contagion of tropical and unclean re- 
gions. To protect the million of people lying 
back of it, that " Visitor" should be armed with 
authority as solid as adamant. Brooklyn's great 
preacher once wisely said, " Cholera is God's 
opinion of the filth in your streets." Truly a 
brave statement, but only half of the truth ; good 
and saving so far as it went, but needing the sup- 
plementary idea, that if the quarantine keeps the 
germs of disease out, the Divine opinion may not 
be openly expressed in terms of mortality. 

Egypt's agony awakens fear in the cities of the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 175 

New World, just as the waves starting on the 
shores of the Mediterranean ultimately leave their 
weakened impress on the sands of our coast. 
These periodical pests, bad as they are, do have a 
mission. The loss of a hundred lives may awaken 
a wholesome fear of the causes of disease, and 
thus lead to such care as will shear pestilence of 
its dreadful power. 

Here is an extract from an official letter written 
by a distinguished physician. It shows that even 
in so great a city as New York, cholera can be 
controlled : 

On Wednesday, when the epidemic was at its height, the ist 
of August, 1866, I gave my pledge to the Board of Commission- 
ers and to Mr. Schultz, president of the Board of Health, in 
your presence, that I would drive the cholera from the work- 
house in from three to five days. I said this in no spirit of boast- 
ing, but in the simple reliance on the well-known and estab- 
lished laws of hygiene. The commissioners executed literally 
and promptly every order which was given by the committee. 

The epidemic began to decline from the day they were fully 
carried out, and on Monday last the pledge was redeemed.* 

As nations become bound together more closely 

* Flint's " Practice of Medicine," second edition, page 476, 
foot-note. 



176 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



in their commercial relations, so also do the dan- 
gers of intercourse increase. 

The quarantine which now exists at Tinicum, 
about thirteen miles below Philadelphia, is the 
outgrowth of the act of April, 1700, which was 
passed by the Colonial Assembly, William Penn 
being Proprietary Governor. Quarantine is but 
one form of restraint which individual interests 
and inclinations must endure for the public good. 
National or State and City health boards would act, 
if authority as full were given them, with no less 
beneficent results; but their existence is perpet- 
ually threatened by the power which should be 
their support. Ignorance, or worse than ignorance, 
is constantly appealed to, to thwart their measures 
and to limit their usefulness. We tolerate the 
quarantine because the disasters which it helps to 
avert are so sweeping in their character, and force 
themselves upon us in so conspicuous a manner, 
that no expediency or mere political necessity dare 
interfere with its operation. Yellow fever, cholera, 
and other scourges of like character carry an inex- 
orable logic in their death-rates. But the diseases 
with which local or general health boards (inland) 
have to do, — scarlet fever, diphtheria, and the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, lyy 

like, — may In a decade number more victims than 
either or both of the other plagues, which we allow 
the quarantine to stop outside of our doors. 

It is just in the domain of sanitary science that 
modern medicine, whose essential character is pre- 
ventive rather than curative, has wrought its most 
signal triumphs. To prevent an epidemic, is of 
vastly greater importance than to arrest it, after its 
work of decimation has been largely accomplished. 
To fully understand the problem which preventive 
medicine, through health boards, proposes to itself, 
it would be well to compare the ravages of a dis- 
ease like smallpox two centuries ago with the 
relative immunity we now possess. Before the 
time of Jenner, Great Britain and Ireland lost 
from this loathsome plague, each year, out of 
their population, forty-five thousand souls. When 
that sublimely simple prayer for those in the perils 
of maternity was placed in the Episcopal Church 
service, about one sufferer in fifty perished in 
performance of a natural function. Probably the 
mortality to-day would not exceed one in three 
hundred. True, improved treatment has had a 
full share in this shortened roll of doom but 
when we consider what hygiene has done to- 



178 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



wards the same end we can see how great is its 
credit. 

That the quarantine precautions are no mere 
sham, or useless parade of zeal, is fairly to be con- 
cluded when we remember that in 1762 an infected 
vessel from the West Indies brought the yellow 
fever to Philadelphia, and that out of the then 
small population — less than forty thousand — there 
were a thousand lives lost. 

In the perfected republic towards which we are 
growing, neither the ward politician nor his master, 
will dare to lay his hands upon the measures which 
belong to the public health, any more than he 
would dare to touch individual religious opinion. 
There will be no party or clique allegiance stronger 
than the allegiance a man owes to the health of 
his family and of his neighbor, and the success of 
the one will come to be largely measured by what 
it does for the other. The present drum-majors 
of election day will be recognized as those who 
make the display, but who originate no good or 
useful measure simply because it is good or useful ; 
and in their stead will come men of better motives 
and larger deeds. 

For a yacht the size of mine, the Delaware 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, lyg 

River anywhere above Fort Delaware may be re- 
garded as all harbor. It was my custom at night 
to run in along shore as closely as I dared to, and 
then to anchor in about a fathom, or a fathom and 
a half (according to the tide) of water. This gave 
me room to get away at any hour I desired to, and 
still kept me out of the way of boats large enough 
to harm me or mine by collision. Then, with a 
reliable anchor-light out, we could sleep without 
anxiety. Such, at least, was my comforting way 
of looking at it. One night, however, I remember 
we laid down in firm assurance that things were 
all as safe as could be. But before morning I 
found we had anchored in a spot where, between 
wind and tide, the^ boat had tossed enough to put 
her light out, and there in darkness we had waited 
for some other shore-loving vessel to run into us. 
The useful lesson was not lost, and in future we 
were never found without proper safeguards. The 
risk run then became a healthy episode in the 
cruise. 

The Delaware Bay, by which I mean all below 
Fort Delaware, is a more turbulent sheet of water, — 
one, too, which is whimsical sometimes besides. 
It may, almost without provocation, so far as wind 



l8o VACATION CRUISING IN 

goes, be quite rough enough for any small boat. 
In less than half an hour I have seen a very ugly 
sea " kicked up" by opposing wind and tide, and 
one against which it was exceedingly difficult to 
beat. Two harbors offer at the upper end of the 
bay, — Salem Creek, on the New Jersey side, and 
the channel between Reedy Island and the Dela- 
ware shore. The latter, however, furnishes only a 
partial protection. They are good starting-points 
for a long run down the bay. It should be said 
that Salem Creek is a hard place to get out of, if 
the tide be against you, unless the wind enables 
you to run tolerably " free." 

Almost due east from the light on the lower 
end of Reedy Island is the entrance to Alloway's 
Creek, on the Jersey shore. This can be entered 
directly by a vessel drawing four feet of water. 
Run within, say, two or three hundred yards of the 
shore, and the creek-mouth cannot well be missed. 
It affords a safe and most desirable anchorage for 
small craft in heavy weather. 

About a quarter of a mile above Duck Creek 
light, on the Delaware side, is Duck Creek. The 
water here is shoaler, and, unless he knows the 
way in, the amateur had better use his lead-line 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, jgl 

pretty freely. From this, east by south, nine miles 
distant, is the Cohansey light, which marks the 
entrance to the creek of the same name. Here is 
an admirable harbor, which any one with a chart 
before him may easily enter. From this light, 
south by west, out in the middle of the bay, stands 
Ship John light. I have called attention to these 
lights particularly because, fir^t, above the Cohan- 
sey light about a mile, and extending out into the 
bay nearly as far, there is a shallow spot or bar, 
which is in daytime often, if not usually, indicated 
by the " tide rip." Beware of this if drawing over 
two feet and a half of water. Caught there with 
a heavy sea running, one would be uncomfortable 
enough. My second reason for speaking particu- 
larly of Ship John light is, that, unless you are 
acquainted with the water there, it is well not to 
attempt crossing from the western side until Co- 
hansey light is about east of you, and it were 
better to go still more to the south, so that in 
crossing you would go to the north of and about 
a mile from " Ship John." This, of course, all 
implies that I am writing for amateurs who have to 
feel their way. There is a third reason for men- 
tioning that light; it is this: after you have en- 
i6 



1 82 VACATION CRUISING IN 

tered Cohansey you may desire, for some reason, 
to find a particularly safe, quiet anchorage. Fol- 
low the river up, say about a mile from its mouth, 
and on the south side, around the first bend, just 
when you have Cohansey light and Ship John in 
range, you will see a little creek, not over thirty 
or forty feet wide. There is water enough there, 
at all times, for a vessel drawing three and a 
half to four feet. I have abundant reason for 
remembering that place, for we lay there quietly 
through a storm of more than average severity. 
Rail-birds were abundant in the last of August, 
but out of season. 

Were I seeking a place on the bay where I 
could go and spend a couple of weeks in Sep- 
tember in my yacht, I should, I think, select the 
Cohansey. It is accessible, safe, within easy 
reach of Sea Breeze, which has daily communi- 
cation with Philadelphia, and affords good sailing, 
while there is good fishing only a few miles to the 
south. Besides this, the water is salt, and the 
beach is very good. So far as I know, there are 
but two serious objections to the place, — first, the 
green-head flies during the heat of the day are 
numerous and hungry ; the second is, the number 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 183 

of mosquitoes at night. I suppose one must en- 
dure the former if he would go bathing, but the 
second were most effectually excluded from my 
cabin by a double thickness of mosquito netting. 

I have made no allusion to the western shore 
of the lower Delaware Bay for two reasons, — first, 
because I know nothing of it; and, second, be- 
cause my friends, who have cruised there, do not 
speak of it as being so attractive as the eastern 
shore. 

Below Sea Breeze, the chart shows a conspicuous 
landmark, Ben Davis's Point. Using the line and 
following the shore into the depths of the little 
bay around the point [i.e., south of it), one may 
easily run into Back Creek, if he draws no more 
than three feet. We found a schooner on the 
shoals at its mouth, and were told by the crew 
that there were some ugly cross-bars there. Here, 
however, a caution is requisite. Going out of this 
creek to the south, give the shore a wide berth 
until you have passed the black buoy about two 
miles to the southward. Between this and the 
shore an ugly bar " makes out." We crossed it 
in a very heavy sea, and had only a fathom of 
water on the hard bottom. 



1 84 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



Once the buoy is passed, the yachtsman may 
take the shore down to the next resort, Fortescue. 
Above this, about a quarter of a mile, there is 
another creek, which is safe enough, once the 
bar is crossed. I was " brought up" there at half- 
tide in a vessel drawing only three feet of water. 

From Fortescue to Egg Island Point light 
there is enough of water for ordinary yachting 
along-shore. If one is familiar with the place, he 
may take a pretty direct course from Fortescue to 
the light just named. Rounding this point, if 
the wind be favorable, even a stranger may keep 
a couple of hundred yards from the shore (not 
more), and steer north of east to the light-house 
south of Maurice River, until the mouth is just 
a very little west of north, when he may run past 
the buoy on the shoals and into the river. The 
landmark for the river-mouth is the ships' black- 
smith-shop, which stands a little way up in the 
river. There is no building with which it can 
be confounded north of the buoy on the shoal. 
By following this course I always have entered 
Maurice River in a light-draught vessel, but it 
must be remembered that, unless you are able to 
take the channel close to the shore as you round 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 185 

Egg Island Point light, then you must give it a 
wide berth to avoid a bar, on which I saw a yacht, 
drawing only three feet of water, strike last sum- 
mer. Wd could only tender sympathy to the un- 
fortunates, but it was the crowning mishap to a 
long series which they had experienced. There 
are other creeks forming good harbors on either 
side of the bay from Fort Delaware down to 
Maurice River Cove. But the amateur yachtsman 
should learn to enter all that I have named, and, 
of course, as many more besides as he can. 

From Maurice River Cove south, I should say, 
no amateur should go until he has become a toler- 
ably good sailor, or has one with him, and then 
only in a strong, safe, well-provided boat. To 
point this statement I would say that in one of 
my trips to Maurice River, a boat' several feet 
longer than mine came in there and ran ashore. 
It was the only thing left for her to do. There 
was a very heavy wind and high sea outside. 
The captain, who had been hired by the party, 
was said to have a chart, and yet, coming up from 
Cape May, he managed to get aground, though 
drawing but three feet of water ; besides this, he 

split his jib and lost his only anchor, and then 
16* 



1 36 VACATION CRUISING IN 

ran by accident into Maurice River. I say " by 
accident," for we were assured that even if he 
knew of the place he did not know the way in. 
Here was a combination of blunders, — first, to 
go out in a boat any part of whose rigging or 
ground-tackle was weak, and with but one anchor ; 
second, to trust to a man who was not known to 
be a competent navigator in all weather, and who 
proved to be wholly unacquainted with the bay. 
I wish I could think such trips were rare, but, on 
the contrary, I think they are only too common. 
There should always be at least two "good- 
holding" anchors on board, and, no matter how 
heavy the cable may be, it will pay amateurs to 
memorize the aphorism that " No chain is stronger 
than its zveakest link.'' 

The sudden coming of squalls in June and July 
and part of August tannot be too strongly im- 
pressed on the mind ; it may serve as a check on 
foolhardiness. Even with a barometer, one cannot 
ahua^s predict the severity of a coming squall. 
Besides this, too, it should be remembered that the 
blackness of the clouds is not necessarily in pro- 
portion to the force of the wind. I have observed 
that the " saltest" navigators can guess very wide 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 187 

of the truth on such matters. I have seen the 
line of the coming squall on the water, but half a 
mile away, look so threatening that I lowered all 
my sails and let both anchors go ; yet when the 
wind reached us its force was gone. On the other 
hand, I have seen a very severe " blow" where the 
previous indications were not in the least alarm- 
ing. Sailors have learned to watch the vessels 
to the windward, if there be any, and to regulate 
their own conduct by the effect of the wind on 
the vessels which it first strikes. So far as any 
rule for general guidance can be given, this is 
about as good as any. But, after all, the one 
cardinal precept for such circumstances is. Be 
sure you have plenty of ballast, securely fastened, 
and as low down as possible. Next to this, never 
carry more sail than you actually need. Racing- 
rig is no part of a cruising outfit ; and the sooner 
we all learn to subordinate speed entirely to 
safety, the sooner will the drowning-list be short- 
ened enough to make even amateur yachting a 
perfectly legitimate and safe way of spending a 
vacation. 

But this list of platitudes is long enough for 
any one man to inflict on his readers. It is to be 



1 38 VACATION CRUISING IN 

hoped that some one else more competent will 
complete the needed category. 

A genuine water-spout is among the meteoro- 
logical phenomena rarely seen by us. Probably 
they are not often seen by any one. Lying in 
Maurice River, during the storm to which we have 
already alluded, we saw a moving column over 
the water, rotating just as whirlwinds do. Like 
them, too, it was dust-colored (but what colored 
this ?). It had the usual hour-glass shape. We 
did not see any sign that water was drawn into it 
from below, nor did we see any fall from above. 
It was not a very dreadful-looking thing, though 
what it might have been to a passing vessel is 
more than I can conjecture. 

Maurice River and the Cove into which it opens 
are full of strange life, visible to those who seek 
for it. In fact, they are little worlds with, to a 
certain extent, characters of their own. The Cove 
proper may be said to cover an area of probably 
thirty-five square miles. Besides this, there is, ex- 
tending south, toward Cape May, and on the same 
side of the bay, another shallow area of more than 
double this size. The average depth of water in 
both of these areas is, at low tide, about eight 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



189 



feet, in some places becoming as low as three 
feet, and in others reaching as much as eighteen 
feet. 

It is, as most lovers of oysters are aware, a spot 
celebrated for "the quality of those bivalves ; and 
the trade in them has produced a peculiar class of 
vessels, shallow and swift, as well as a peculiar 
class of men to sail them. 

A few years ago one of a party with which I 
was yachting there brought to the surface on his 
hook a fish, the like of which our " skipper" and his 
associates declared had never been seen in those 
waters before. It was a Reinora^ doubtless a wan- 
derer from warmer seas. This one was about a 
foot long, rather slender, dark-colored, and had 
a curious sucking-disk covering the head and the 
forward part of the back. The group to which 
the Remora belongs has been made the subject of 
an enormous weight of encyclopaedic knowledge. 
This we present in hope that some one of more 
than ordinary comprehension will be able to say 
what it really does mean : " Remora, a genus of 



*Some of these species do sometimes get as far north as 
Labrador on our coast. 



1^0 VACATION CRUISING IN 

fishes which Cuvier placed among the Discoboli, 
but which constitutes an entire family, Echinidse, 
near the Scombridae, among Acanthopteri." That 
should be lucid enough ; though, on the whole, 
we would almost rather accept the ancient notion 
that this same Remora was nothing but a fish 
whose sucking and adhesive capacity was entirely 
out of proportion to its size. Those of long ago 
coined the name from the word remorari, because 
the nondescript group was alleged to retard sail- 
ing-vessels by using the sucking-disk to adhere to 
I their bottoms. Group, we say, because there are 
several species of them, some edible, and others 
useful in another way, — that is, by attaching them- 
selves to turtles, and holding on until Remora and 
turtle both, are pulled to the surface by a ring and 
line fastened to the tail of the fish and leading to 
the hand of a fisherman above. 

The sucking-disk on our specimen was about 
three inches long. The margin was slightly 
raised, thick, soft, and flexible. In the interior of 
the inclosure was a series of transverse ridges, 
which anatomists assure us are simply modified 
parts of the first fin on the back. These have 
muscles attached to them, and may be elevated so 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, igi 

as to increase the depth of the cavity on the cen- 
tral surface of the disk. Thus the vacuum was 
formed on which the adhesive power of the disk 
depended. 

The ancient Romans had the idea that this 
fish retarded the progress of ships, as we have 
already said ; and this became woven into their 
history, and possibly, also, to a certain extent, into 
sea-side mythology. Did Antony's vessel fail 
to come up in time to the battle of Actium ? It 
was, because the Fates had fixed a Rcmora to the 
commander's vessel. It is almost a sin to doubt 
the tale, but it is probable that Egypt's queen at- 
tracted Antony's ships more than the Remora did. 

However, to give the fish its due, it does use 
this disk to fasten itself to vessels. Stranger still, 
it thus attaches itself to other, larger fish, and so 
escapes their attacks, — a mode of defence which 
appears to be almost unique. 

Familiarity with common objects induces a cer- 
tain disregard for them, — I do not say contempt, 
for the old adage is probably too strong. To my 
unaccustomed eyes the external growths on the 
shells of living oysters were a source of perpetual 
wonder. Sponges and diatoms, one will almost cer- 



1^2 VACATION CRUISING IN 

tainly find, and much more besides. For objects 
large enough to be handled, and down to those 
visible only through the magic tube which increases 
vision a thousand-fold, the oyster-shell furnished 
life and foothold. I know it is a great risk for one, 
in this science-ridden age, to write about anything 
with so hard a name as diatom, to say nothing of 
the still larger names with which men of learning 
insist on ticketing these little organisms. But if 
the public do not care enough for them to ex- 
amine and name them, men should not complain 
if the universal language of science lays hold on 
them. At all events, the long name is no fault 
of the little plants, and it were surely hard if the 
name should sound so large as to prevent their 
case being heard. These diatoms are wonderful 
plants, microscopic in size, thriving alike in fresh, 
or in salt water, and found in the oceans about 
either pole, as well as under the equator. During 
their life, in a small way, they render signal ser- 
vice to their animal neighbors by giving off 
oxygen to the water for them, and by making 
•food upon which they may live. When dead, 
they leave a solid memorial behind. This memo- 
rial is, indeed, the most characteristic thing about 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 1^3 

them, and is made of the purest silica, — that sifted, 
as it were, by the organs and processes of life, 
and then deposited as a shell around the living 
part within. The green interior of the diatom 
dies, decays, and disappears; but the sandy shell 
remains for all time, and may, when in vast numbers, 
even serve as a foundation to build cities upon, or 
may choke up harbors. It may pass unchanged 
in shape, unaltered in its wonderfully delicate 
markings, from the depths of the ocean, through 
the base of a volcano, and be thrown out in an 
eruption, and finally be found, bleached, beautified, 
and perfect, thousands of feet above the sea on 
the flanks of the fiery peak. This is no fable, but 
sober, scientific fact; for on the sides of Mount 
Erebus, as near to the south pole as men care to 
go, these skeleton memorials may be found now. 
Histories, too, these same little plants may be- 
come : those of to-day recording for the future the 
advance or retreat of ocean, just as those of the 
past have, by their sandy shells, declared the re- 
treat of the waves from what are now inland spots. 
So they tell us of a retreat from Richmond, when, 
inch by inch, before man was, the waves in which 

the diatoms lived, retired and left the soil on which 
in 17 



194 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the human hosts contended so recently. The 
skeletons of men, the skeletons of diatoms, lying 
on the same spot, each tell of strife. 

" There rolls the deep, where grew the tree. 
O earth ! what changes thou hast seen ! - 
There, where the long street roars, hath been 
The stillness of the central sea." 

Diatom life, whether on, or in the oyster, or 
wherever found, is a strange tale, — one which 
should hardly be started save in the presence of a 
good microscope. Take up some standard work 
on botany, and learn how curiously they are re- 
produced : by one individual dividing its interior, 
living portion into two parts, and then each half 
secreting a new shell around its outer face, so that 
when these perfected halves become independent 
individuals, each is made up of one old and one 
new shell. But sooner or later the succeeding 
generations become too small to represent the 
species, by this mode of reproduction. A new 
process now comes in to reproduce full-sized in- 
dividuals. Two distinct plants unite, and their 
contents grow to maximum size, then take on 
their characteristic sandy coat, and begin again 
the first mode of reproduction. There is infinite 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



195 



variety in almost infinitesimal size among these 
plants. Look them up, find their illustrations in 
Carpenter's work on the Microscope, and be con- 
vinced how wonderful they are. Meanwhile let 
me ask my fi-iend, Professor Macloskie, to tell, in 
his clear way, what hints they furnish. "The 
shells (or shields, as they are termed) are chiselled 
and ornamented with markings which are charac- 
teristic of the twelve hundred or more species 
known. Some of them are circular, some ellip- 
tical, and so on through varying forms, as tri- 
angles, squares, lozenge-forms, fans, boat-forms, 
sigma-curves, stars, spiders' web, and the radiant 
sun. Fancy may detect all sorts of beautiful 
forms in their shields, and artists in the precious 
metals may here find an inexhaustible mine of 
new suggestions for elegant designs. The shields 
are adorned with systems of hollow pyramids or 
intersecting lines and bands. High powers of the 
microscope, with special arrangements of oblique 
illumination, are required to show these, and new 
advances in microscopic constructions are signal- 
ized by success in resolving diatoms that had 
baffled former efforts. Many forms are supposed 
to have markings which have not yet been dis- 



iq5 vacation cruising in 

covered, and there is reason to believe that our 
interpretations of some parts are erroneous, be- 
cause the light which we employ is made up of 
waves which are too coarse for such fine work. 
Thus it is not by the fault of the microscope, but 
by the clumsiness of light, that we find ourselves 
bewildered." * Had Hans Christian Andersen 
been fascinated by these small things as much 
as some men of less genius are, he would have 
clothed their whole life with the charms of a fairy 
tale, and made their history plain enough to have 
been read in the nursery. 

Squids' eggs are those half jelly-like, olive- 
shaped bodies which one finds so often in Sep- 
tember adhering to the shells of the living oyster. 
Some people call them sea-grapes, but the oyster- 
men have fearful names for them. They are little, 
if any, heavier than water, and hence, when agi- 
tated by a heavy storm, the water sweeps over the 
cove bottom, and the light bunches of sea-grapes 
float away bodily along with the oysters, which 
they help to buoy^ up. The oyster-farmer may 



* " Macloskie's Botany," p. 220, et seq., a work furnishing exact 
information in a most readable form. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, jg^ 

thus find his whole crop carried away by the wind 
and waves. To be sure, it is almost an unheard-of 
thing among landsmen, but the oysterman knows 
it; is only too true and too common. " Dumb as 
an oyster" is a remark often heard ; but whatever 
their intelligence may be, there is no doubt as to 
their extreme sensitiveness. A heavy clap of 
thunder, or a hard jar received by the vessel car- 
rying them, it is affirmed, may kill a whole cargo. 
The dip of your oars in the water as you approach 
an oyster-bed may cause every one of the thou- 
sands of shells, over which you float, to close. 
Among the foes with which the oyster has to con- 
tend is the crab. Indeed, there comes to us from 
the Middle Ages a tale that the crab dropped a 
pebble between the open shells, which prevented 
their closure, so that, without danger to himself, 
he was enabled to capture the animal he was after. 
But the little crab which we find inside the 
oyster-shell, and which we eat as a luxury, is quite 
another animal. Naturalists designate it as Pinno- 
theres. One might suppose that so hard a name 
was in some way intended as a punishment ; but 
the oyster crab is a friend, not a foe, to his host. 

This crab is a real nursery, on which multitudes 

17* 



iq8 vacation cruising in 

of still smaller animals, with still larger names, 
live, — Zoothamium. It is too bad, but that is 
the fact. Now, the whole tale appears to be this : 
the Zoothamium is on the Pinnotheres, and the 
Pinnotheres lives inside the oyster, which, in turn, 
eats the Zoothamium. This is all very strange ; 
but that when so insignificant a thing as a Zootha- 
mium happens to die, and fall off from the stalk 
which supported it, still smaller and less consequen- 
tial things — " rod-like vibriones" — should grow out 
of the stalk, is still stranger. It is almost past- 
belief that there should be so much besides the 
oyster inside the shell ; but as the official docu- 
ment, which was prepared with infinite care, says 
so, we must believe it to be true. It would be 
a very long chapter if we were to tell all that can 
be told about the friends and foes of the oyster. 
Not only is animal life leagued against it, but the 
elements conspire to destroy it. The wind agitates 
the water, this stirs up the fine mud and sand, 
which, entering the open shell, fill the oyster's 
respiratory organs, and it dies from suffocation. 

The statement would be incredible, if it were not 
made on the best authority, that not one out of a 
million eggs spawned becomes an adult, edible 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, jgg 

oyster. The very process of fecundation in our 
American oyster involves a chance against the 
species ; for the eggs and the male elements are 
left to meet as best they can after extrusion from 
the animal, and can only complete the reproductive 
function if wind or tide bring them in contact. 

Hence appears the urgent need of such investi- 
gations as those undertaken by the general and 
by some of the State governments. The impor- 
tance of this oyster trade, now in its infancy, may 
be estimated, when it is known that the value, 
at first hand, of the Delaware Bay crop each 
year is about ^2,425,000. Our young life on 
this continent has produced marked deviations in 
our way of looking at things as compared with 
Old World views. Older nations have learned by 
experience to husband national, as well as indi- 
vidual, resources. But two and a half centuries 
ago our ancestors landed on these Western slopes, 
and found them so prolific in forest wealth that 
before an acre could be cultivated it must be 
cleared. Just about two hundred years back, good 
William Penn wrote most enthusiastically con- 
cerning the food which the waters contained. 
Abundance in flood and in forest, induced habits 



200 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



of extravagance, which have become so deeply- 
instilled that we can hardly recognize the tradi- 
tional wisdom of older countries, even when it is 
pointed out. We have come to regard our pam- 
pered habits of life and thought as the normal 
ones. Now, in the full vigor of early youth, with 
high hopes of an unexampled prosperity before 
it, the nation finds it has squandered the good 
things of its heritage. The forests are disappear- 
ing from the land and the fish from the sea. By 
great good fortune, prophets came to warn and 
masters to teach. Baird, Hough, Price, Sargent, 
Brooks, and Ryder are names that will be better 
known half a century hence, even than now, be- 
cause the importance of their present work will 
appear greater as time passes. Because a wise 
man, who was a power in the land, and who but 
lately left us to join the " silent majority," said he 
had no heart for scientific investigation after it 
became useful, other weaker ones, without his 
genius, have emblazoned his watchword on their 
banners. 

Let it be known, then, that the names recorded 
above, are of those, who do not scorn to make 
their knowledge useful, however much they value 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 20I 

it in the abstract. The streams restocked with 
fish, the beds replenished with oysters are practi- 
cal illustrations of the value of science, worth as 
much as ever was or ever can be written on the 
morphology of the star-fish. I do not disparage 
the value of the latter, either. All abstract scien- 
tific studies confer standing and power on the 
nation, but their extreme advocates must not re- 
veal to the world how one-sided their studies may 
have made them, or they will bring all science 
into contempt. Scientific arrogance is the spirit 
which, of all others, the culture of succeeding 
generations will least tolerate. Even abstract sci- 
ence may come to be regarded in the future much 
as we regard some learned pursuits of earlier 
times, though I sincerely hope not. 

One out of a million oyster eggs reaches ma- 
turity ! It was somewhat so once with fish spawn. 
But now these dwellers in the deep appear to be 
transplanted and hatched, one is tempted to say, 
w^ith about the same certainty as chickens. Within 
the year, the daily papers have told us that John 
Ryder had succeeded in raising young oysters, 
after artificial fecundation of the eggs, in natural 
inclosures. This is one of the great achievements 



202 VACATION CRUISING IN 

of the age. It is a food-producing conquest over 
the thousand causes which conspired against starv- 
ing men and women. Let it be told all over the 
land, that towards this end, that patient investi- 
gator has worked when others slept ; worked when 
others saw no reward for his labors ; worked year 
in and year out with a persistency which was 
sublime. It is just such studies that the govern- 
ment does well to encourage. The following ex- 
tract comes from the American of November loth, 
1883: 

OYSTER-BREEDING FROM ARTIFICIALLY-FERTIL- 
IZED EGGS. 

Mr. John A. Ryder, embryologist to the United States Fish 
Commission, to whose labors in oyster culture we had occasion to 
refer in the columns of a recent issue of this journal, thus briefly 
summarizes the results of his latest researches in this important 
branch of economical biology : " While it is too soon to affirm 
that artificial breeding may be profitably available on an extensive 
scale in practical oyster culture, our experiment has demonstrated 
a number of very important facts. These are : (i) Oyster spat 
maybe reared from artificially-fertilized eggs; (2) the spat will 
grow just as fast in such inclosures [artificially-excavated ponds, 
connected by a guarded passage-way with the open water of the 
sea] as in the open water; (3) food is rapidly generated in such 
inclosures ; (4) the density of the water in the ponds is not ma- 
terially afi'ected by rains or leaching from the banks ; (5) ponds 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



203 



are readily excavated in salt-marsh lands, and can in all prob- 
ability be used for fattening and growing Ostrea Virghiica for 
market just as successfully as Ostrea edidis and angulata are 
grown by a similar method on the coasts of France. Pond cul- 
ture where there are salt marshes adjoining arms of the sea, the 
waters of which have a density below 1.020, can doubtless be 
carried on profitably in connection with intelligent use of simple, 
cheap collecting apparatus placed in both open and confined 
waters to catch a 'set' of spat, which can then be transferred to 
ponds or open beds." 

When we were in Maurice River there was 
nothing to indicate the activity which the first 
day of September would bring to those waters. 
Then a hundred sail, or more, of trim sloops and 
schooners, manned by hardy, enterprising sailors, 
would move to and fro across the dredging- 
grounds, plying a vocation which promises to 
grow into still more stupendous proportions. 

It is a source of regret that the child-like, but 
not too moral sailor of a generation ago is disap- 
pearing from our wharves. He of the old type, 
who made the hour of the young ebb tide wildly 
melodious with his songs as he " hove the anchor 
short," or hoisted sail for departure to " furrin 
parts," may have gone with the advent of the un- 
welcome, alien, steam " ocean tramps" that carry 



204 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



our produce away, when we should do it ourselves. 
But in a measure, this new race, landsmen in 
summer and oystermen in winter, has taken his 
place. Go among them, and you will find them a 
class by themselves, who have their own language 
and their own views of life. They may be as 
rough and as hard-shelled as the bivalve they 
capture, but, then, like it, they are good enough 
within. Sharp at a bargain, mayhap suspicious 
of new-comers, you will 'find them generous to a 
friend. You can trust them in the hour of need, and 
may feel sure that a favor is never lost on them. 

On our inland waters there is no harder life than 
that which they lead in winter. So long as their 
vessels " can live" and carry sail there is no 
weather in which they do not go. Their business 
is fairly remunerative, — at least, enough so to make 
them stick to it from early manhood on. There 
is no " easy berth" on their boats, and one would 
find, that life through they 

" Tugged at it night and day, 

Till each was a saint in glory, — 
If he happened to go that way," 

I cannot help admiring the persistent fortitude 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 205 

with which they work and sail when even the 
decks and rigging are covered with ice, and always 
think of them as a sort of subdued Vikings, with 
all the hardihood of the prototype, and none of 
the viciousness which Taine has so vigorously 
portrayed. 

This oyster-dredging is very suggestive, and a 
person wonders, when he sees the vessels dragging 
their great iron rakes over the oyster-beds, and 
finds the men amid the filth and discomfort of the 
business, that so many are willing to engage in it. 
But, then, take our ship of state. See her sail- 
ing over the shoals and dragging a host of rakes 
that stir up more mud and dirtier than all the 
dredges of Maurice River Cove, fouling as they 
go, the surroundings in which quiet folk must live. 
Probably, after all, hunting oysters is a cleaner, 
more reputable profession than hunting office. 

There is one peculiarity about the inhabitants 
of Central and Southern New Jersey. I say pe- 
culiarity because I have nowhere else seen the 
characteristic so marked. I mean their rational 
enjoyment of life. Busy as the busiest at times, 
yet, again, say in August, you may find them, 
sometimes by thousands, often by hundreds, at the 



2o6 VACATION CRUISING IN 

shore of the bay, near Maurice River, engaged in 
a thoroughly old-fashioned picnic. Such a time as 
they have refreshes a whole neighborhood, and 
brushes away the gloom and business monotony 
from an entire community. I have somewhere 
read that once a year the Laplander brings his 
reindeer from off the mountains and moorlands to 
the sea-shore, and allows them there to drink and 
to bathe in the salt water to their full content, that 
they may go away invigorated for the rest of the 
year. Just so these sensible folk gather at the 
bay from miles and miles away to renew their 
youth, meet their friends, and to wash the burden 
of daily care from off their souls. Some come in 
wagons, some in vessels by water, some tent on the 
mosquito-plagued shore, but all enjoy themselves. 
Wet, stormy days, when one does not sail, are 
not wholly lost time. There is some quiet enjoy- 
ment, if not, indeed, a sort of education^ gained by 
lying in the berth and listening to the rain patter- 
ing on deck. It may be that in some corner of 
the brain lurks a cell or two whose characteristics 
are inherited from agile ancestors that swung by 
prehensile tails under the palm-leaves of tropical 
forests, and enjoyed such shelter because they had 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



207 



no better. How else can we explain the pleasure 
with which men listen to the falling rain-drops on 
the tent ? I suppose those were what most active 
men would call lazy days ; but this term is quite 
too hard. They were, rather, recuperative days, 
in which animal energy was stored, until its very 
excess obliged us to break out into some exercise 
of mind or body. 

In " Mose" this explosion was usually retro- 
spective in character. He was not exactly " rocked 
in the cradle of the deep," but he began " goin' to 
sea when he cudn't do nuthing but run roun' de 
deck." His brain is full of stormy remembrances, 
and I suppose it is pleasant when one is in a good, 
quiet harbor to call back to mind the storms when 
there was no such resting-place available. " Mose" 
meditates a long time, then he breaks out suddenly 
with, " Cap'n, dis heah 'minds me." " Of what, 
Mose?" I like to encourage yarns in the cabin 
when the wind is whisthng outside. They make me 
content to stay where I am and await more peaceful 
weather. " Dis heah 'minds me ob de nite I was a 
comin' out'n de Potomac in January. It was a 
snowin' and a blowin', and we was loaded down 
deep, and had a big deck-load on. Cap'n, he put 



2o8 VACATION CRUISING IN 

de schooner in Cornfield Harbor, and jis when he 
was a goin' to let de anker go, de wind cum round 
fi-om de sou'east. * Dis heah ain't no good place 
fur us, boys,' sais de cap'n. We hauled de sheets 
aft, and headed de schooner cross de Potomac fur 
Yeocomico River ; but afore we got dere de wind 
hauled round, first one way, den anoder way, and 
it jist howled and blowed all it knowed how. 
Did you say dark ? Yes, you cudn't see yur hand ; 
and it snow'd till it cudn't snow no harder. I 
reckin we was half-way acrosst when we split our 
jib ; den we parted our main-sheet. * Dis heah is 
dangersum, or wuss, boys,' says cap'n. Fust a 
gust wud hit her, till you'd a thought everything 
would go ; den a back flaw wud strike her, and way 
wud go de boom, till we spected it wud jist carry 
de masts out. Twicet we boys went into de rig- 
gin' ; but den dat wusn't no good place, fur suah. 
Sartin as dem sticks went out'n her we'd gone, too. 
All on a sudden cap'n sings out, ' Boys, dis head- 
wind's gwine to cum steddy out'n de sou. Hard a 
lee !' sais he. De schooner cum up into de wind 
and looked out into de bay. Reckin was 'bout 
midnite wen we headed north, and I tell you it was 
squally, fur suah. We shuk a reef out'n de main- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 209 

s'l, and started fur Patuxent. We know'd drivin' 
her so hard was openin' de ole schooner's seams J 
but we was goin' sumwere wen we did git started. 
I tell you, de decks was wet and slippery w.id 
slush. Purty soon de wind settled down and cum 
from sou'east, and den it jist screamed ; but we 
kep' her goin'. I tell you we give her all de can- 
vas she'd stand. 'Twas a sin how we made her 
carry sail. Reckin 'twas 'bout three o'clock in de 
mornin' wen we let her anker go in Patuxent. 
Wen I went below dat nite I kinder made up my 
mind dat I'd quit de bisness. Dat was nigh on't 
seven years ago ; and here I am, on de water yit." 

" And what a vision greets their weary gaze ! 
What realms of wonder, chaos of wild dreams 
Out-chaosed, kingdoms and seas of tumult!" 

Watching the " fiddler"— that is, the " fiddler 
crab" {Gelasimus pugilator) — was a sort of kill- 
time employment for a wet day. In what one- 
sided currents the thoughts of men run ! How 
many profound memoirs our naturalists have 
written upon bilateral symmetry as illustrated in 
the animal kingdom ! yet not a single paper has 
been produced on the quadrilateral awkwardness 

of this betwixt-tide nondescript. Some friends of 
18* 



210 VACATION CRUISING IN 

mine have, by eavesdropping and spying in his 
muddy domain, been inquiring into his habits ; but 
it is little they have discovered concerning him, 
save that, come day or come night, when the tide 
is out, he is most industriously engaged in carry- 
ing dirt out of the depths of his burrow. So far, 




THE FIDDLER CRAB. 



then, as known, his highest ambition is to dig his 
cellar deeper. Go ashore and see the flying troop 
darting towards the shelter of their homes, and 
then stopping outside, to see if you will come 
closer. They do have a use, however, that of 
serving to illustrate certain human peculiarities, 
— crabbcdness as associated with cowardliness. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS, 2II 

Sometimes, when approached, that one overshad- 
owing claw is raised in a warning and in a " come- 
if-you-dare" spirit ; but walk one step nearer, and 
it is instantly lowered to where the back and 
shoulders ought to be, while the whole ungainly 
anatomy trundles hastily away under the burden 
of that same threatening arm. Amphibious, — well, 
one must neither think nor say things too hard 
about an animal whose hold on life is limited to 
the narrow strip of earth between high- and low- 
water. Long before this, most of those who 
started with him must have gone for good to one 
element or the other. If he does excite our sym- 
pathy for the hardness of his lot, he, at the same 
time, awakens our-^admiration when we see the 
fleet-footed, multitudinous progeny he has raised 
on this undesirable, abandoned shore-line. 

When we left Camden we started with an in- 
dustrious colony of ants on board. How they 
came was always a mystery, for the boat had 
never once been alongside of a wharf during our 
stay there. We were no sooner started than they 
appeared, and then disappeared. Where they 
went was equally a mystery, and one which we 
never solved ; but before long we learned to as- 



212 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



sociate their reappearance with a falling barometer. 
V/hen a storm threatened, these ants (and along 
with them the flies) came out in force ; but a more 
harmless set of stowaways than they never stole 
passage on any vessel. They neither troubled our 
provisions, nor came about us by day, or by night. 
Man's inhumanity has been well denounced; 
one sees it everywhere, sometimes absolutely 
needful, sometimes pardonable, sometimes inex- 
cusable, but always and everywhere unpleasant to 
contemplate. It is not in the mere destruction 
of life that its greatest iniquity lies, but in the 
torture inflicted upon animals which are small and 
of but little use as food. I can hardly think that 
the slaughter of an ox brings with it the pain that 
a fractured limb does to an unlucky bird. There 
were places along the Delaware (and elsewhere) 
where bird-murder was at its height in August. 
Early in the morning, and at dusk in the evening, 
when the birds were flying most actively, the 
guns were heard constantly. All available places 
where the passing flocks could alight, were 
chosen by "pot-hunters" for their blinds, whence, 
the instant the birds stopped, the contents of one 
or both barrels were poured into them. At 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 213 

many places along the usual lines of flight in the 
marshes, dead bushes were raised to aflbrd resting- 
places, and thus to tempt the weary birds to stop 
and meet their fate. It is not for those killed 
outright that I raise this "hue and cry." That 
may all be justified by the mouthful of nutriment 
each small body furnishes. It has, too, a market 
value. But how about the scores of maimed 
victims, with broken wings and legs, that each 
day of such sport, or such business, leaves suffer- 
ing or starving in the marshes? If there were 
a single element in such shooting which could 
take away the curse of cold-blooded torture, it 
might be looked upon with toleration. Is there 
no more sportsmanlike, less horrible, and equally- 
lucrative manner in which this business can be 
carried on ? 

One is likely to be regarded as super-sensi- 
tive for finding fault with such deeds. The 
charge may be true enough as public opinion 
goes, and if it is, then I hasten to accept it with 
all the demerit which attaches to it. I am in full 
sympathy with those maimed victims, and utterly 
out of sympathy with their destroyers. At the 
same time, I was and still am fond of the rod and 



214 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the gun and of all the legitimate uses that these im- 
plements imply. It should be a cardinal doctrine 
among genuine sportsmen never to kill game 
simply for the sake of killing it, and never to 
shoot at a game-bird or quadruped without the 
chance of killing it outright, or of finding it when 
wounded. 

I never saw so few brilliant, nocturnal phos- 
phorescent displays in the water as this year (1883). 

There is a pleasure in listening to the sound of 
distant steamer-paddles. It is almost past belief 
how far they can be heard. More than once we rec- 
ognized the solid beat of the " Republic's" wheels 
before she was in sight. On one occasion this same 
steamer gave us a remarkable illustration of the 
interception of sound. We were then lying on 
the New Jersey side, a few miles below Fort Dela- 
ware. The steamer passed down on the western 
side, perhaps a mile away ; every stroke of her pad- 
dles could be distinctly heard. Suddenly she ran 
behind a large sailing-vessel, and (making allow- 
ance for passage of sound over the intervening dis- 
tance) the sound ceased almost absolutely, to begin 
again at the proper moment after she came out 
from behind the sailing-vessel. I think I never 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 215 

before had so striking an illustration of intercepted 
sound. 

It is astonishing what a wealth of sounds there 
is about us in the night-time, when we are camp- 
ing out in the forest, or when we listen for them 
on the water. True, there are some nights, when 
the stillness of death is everywhere, but on the 
average night, the air is full of sounds, which we 
only recognize when we listen for them. The 
rain-drops on the oak-leaves, the stealthy tread of 
some prowling animal, or the murmur of the water 
as it comes rippling against the boat-sides are 
all musical in my ears. I cannot understand or 
enjoy the music of Wagner: I am not sure that 
I ever could find anything in it which would 
strengthen me ; but that of the rain-drops, or the 
murmur of the water within a foot of my head, 
is full of healthy influences for me. All the music 
of the masters is in its very youth compared with 
these. 

If one is only in the secrets of nature, he will 
find that there is no wind but has its own distinct 
character. The south wind in early spring-time 
is very different from that of the dog-days. It 
brings with it other ideas, and touches our faces, 



2i6 VACATION CRUISING IN 

or plays with our hair, awakening other emotions. 
Then the east wind is as full of gloom as it is 
of fog. It darkens and depresses until the sufferer 
no longer wonders that Holmes inquired whether 
it ever reached Paradise. Euroclydon has a bad 
character. But full of promise and of exaltation 
is the west wind. It comes laden with healing 
powers gathered from all the plants of prairies and 
of plains, and these purified by sifting through the 
hemlock boughs on our mountain-tops. No one 
can mistake that which comes from the north. It 
is so sincere and earnest that, lying in the berth 
below deck, one may recognize its whistle in the 
rigging. In homely phrase the western poet 
describes its doings truly and pathetically when 
he tells what it does in autumn, — 

" They's somepin kind o' hearty like about the atmosphere 
When the heat o' summer's over and the coolin' fall is here. 
Of course, we nuss the flowers and the blossoms on the trees, 
And the mumble of the hummin' birds and buzzin' of the bees ; 
But the air's so appetizin', and the landscape through the haze 
-Of a crisp and sunny morning of the early autumn days 
Is a picture that no painter has the colorin' to mock, — 
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock." 

The rapidity of the tide in Delaware Bay is a 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 217 

revelation to one who has been accustomed only 
to sailing on the Chesapeake. When two cur- 
rents meet, a well-marked " tide-rip" is produced, 
which in the Chesapeake would certainly be re- 
garded as indicating shoal water. In the Dela- 
ware Bay, however, this may be found over very 
deep water, as may be seen where the ebb tide from 
Salem Creek meets with that in the Delaware. 
Of course, there are places in the Delaware where 
shoals are indicated by just such rips. One ap- 
pears at certain stages of the water on the bar 
between Delaware City and the head of Reedy 
Island, and another just above Cohansey light, on 
the New Jersey side. 

Following down along the " rip" formed by the 
ebb from Salem Creek, I was surprised to find 
how sharply the line was maintained for miles be- 
low where the currents making it, first met. This 
was clearly shown by the floating staminate (male) 
flowers of the Zizania, or water-rice, — the tall grass 
which forms the mass of the reed-like vegetation 
along the muddy shores of Salem Creek. No 
doubt, a little later we should have found that 
some, at least, of the matured seeds were being 

transported from their place of growth to a new 
K 19 



2i8 VACATION CRUISING IN 

point at which they might begin a young colony 
of water-rice. It was a good illustration of the 
means by which the geographical distribution of 
plants -is effected now and has been for, no one 
knows, how many centuries. From some chance 
seed the new island, just emerging from beneath 
the surface, might receive its first vegetation. 
Under such circumstances it would probably grow 
and speedily cover the whole marshy spot. If, on 
the other hand, this water-rice seed had been 
drifted to shores already occupied, even if it 
reached there with the germ in healthy condition, 
there would have still been doubt as to its success 
in obtaining a foothold. It must then have con- 
tended with the other occupants of the soil, and 
the victory would have been decided by, first, the 
inherent fitness of each of the contending plants 
for the place ; and, second, by the capacity each 
had for adapting itself to new conditions of life as 
they might arise. (As a matter of fact, the seed of 
the water-rice, along the Delaware, is pretty sure to 
be successful.) This struggle for existence every 
observer knows to be more than a Darwinian 
dream. It has been active ever since earth be- 
came a life-crowded surface; and in all places 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 219 

where soil and climate furnished the rations upon 
which the hves of the battling armies depended, 
the struggle has been kept up. What the floating 
flowers of the Delaware suggested, then,^is no 
narrow problem limited to the waters on which we 
sailed. It might be comforting to our pride if we 
could think that mankind was exempted from the 
limitations imposed by this relentless law. But it 
is all-embracing, and man, as a link in the food- 
needing chain of life, has written his own struggling 
history, in conquest, over other living links in the 
same chain. Our cleared acres and our tunnelled 
mountains are eloquent witnesses of the contests 
we have had, and of the victories we have won in 
competition with each other and with the soil from 
which our bread must come. But high over the 
curse comes the blessing; the strengthened sur- 
vivors are themselves better fitted to enjoy what 
they have gained, and to transmit a full vigor to 
those whom they beget. Natural selection is in- 
flexible. Competition, vigor, and perpetuity are 
joined in the eternal order. 

Our larger plants have well-defined geographi- 
cal areas over which each particular species may 
range. Only a few are really cosmopolitan in 



220 VACATION CRUISING IN 

character. But this year I encountered a small 
lichen, growing upon the trees at the water's edge, 
which, from some starting-point, has encircled the 
globe. It is known to inhabit every continent, 
and the islands of Polynesia as well. Still, it is a 
wee thing, seldom growing an inch long, with 
branching, gray or greenish-gray stem, and a small 
golden-colored cup on the end of its branches. 
Botanists have called it TJidoschistes clDysopthal- 
imis. They have other names for it, but this one 
is hard enough, so I will not allude to the others. 
I cannot give it an English name, for I do not 
know that it has one. This only shows how very 
little it has been noticed by common folk ; yet it is 
older probably than any race of men on earth, and 
has reared a thriving colony in every quarter of 
the globe. We speak of our Anglo-Saxon as the 
greatest colonizing race, but it seems we must 
rest that claim upon other ground than mere dis- 
persion, and occupation of territory ; for this little 
lichen has planted more colonies, reared more 
and larger generations, and endured more than 
our noble English stock. 

The particular species I have named has a near 
relative, more dwarfed still, — one which crouches 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 221 

down closely to the surface of rock, or bark, to 
which the winds have carried its spore (seed), and 
on which the rain has nourished its growing tissue. 
Almost anything, living or dead, serves as a start- 
ing-point for its humble life. I have it from the 
moss-banks of Unalaska, from the trees of Massa- 
chusetts and New Brunswick, from the bones of 
some unfortunate sailor, whose remains were found 
bleaching on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and 
from the wreck of the cedar boat which lay 
by his side. I have gathered this same species 
where it grew more than two hundred feet up in 
air, on the stones in the spire of the Strasburg 
Cathedral, in Southern Germany. Let me ask, 
What is the purpose in creation of this lichen, so 
widely diffused, thriving under circumstances so 
different, resisting the intense glare of the sun on 
the one hand, and the cold of the polar winter on 
the other ? Evolutionist that I am, I can see in 
development nothing which contravenes Divine in- 
tention. Say, if you will, that I am sodden in 
sentiment ; yet, I will still confess that I never see 
these rough, slow-growing things without wishing 
to sit down and question them on their own his- 
tory and on the history of men that has been 



222 VACATION CRUISING IN 

enacted around them. Lichens though they be, 
humble, repulsive, rejected by men, for all that, 
they have sensibilities so refined that amid the at- 
mospheric impurities where factory chimneys pour 
forth their black volumes they produce less fruit 
than where sunshine, shower, and clouds take the 
place of smoke. 

These and the larger plant- wanderers we can 
trace by the unassisted vision ; but there exists a 
class so small as to defy our poor eyesight, — 
germs, microscopic in size, that float in the air, 
nestle on and in living or dead plants, penetrate 
into our lungs, or find their way into our very 
blood and marrow, there to breed disease which 
may decimate a community. These are the true 
cosmopolites of the vegetable kingdom. Strange 
that the smallest, apparently most delicate, living 
things should be most ubiquitous, and actually the 
most hardy ! 

It is a strange, dual life that lichens possess. 
Cut them through, making a section so thin 
as to be transparent, and when you have placed 
this under a microscope you will see two dis- 
tinct anatomical elements in their structure, — 
first, a set of colorless, branching, hollow threads; 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 223 

and second, some round green bodies, whose size 
might be stated as about the one-thousandth of an 
inch in diameter. There is concerning each of 
these elements a long history : on the one part, a 
tale of theft, and on the other, one of servitude.* 
The colorless threads are almost identical with 
those which we find making the mould on our 
bread and cheese, or with those which in a more 
compact form make up the ordinary mushroom. 
These green bodies are just such as one may find 
on cold, damp brick walls, or occasionally forming 
a green scum on the surface of stagnant pools. It 
is a strange marriage, this, between the colorless 
threads and the green bodies, but certainly, so far 
as the threads are concerned, it is a union for life. 
As a rule, only such parts of plants as possess 
green color are capable of making their own food 
out of the inorganic elements around them. The 
threads must be helpless but for the green bodies 
to which they unite themselves, and from which 
they draw their sustenance. 

Hence it appears that these fungal-like threads 

* In giving this version of lichen life, I am not ignorant of 
Mink's researches, but do n^t adopt them, because I cannot set 
' aside so easily the observations of Schwendener and Stahl. 



224 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



cannot live without the green algae, for such the 
round bodies are, though the latter are quite capa- 
ble of an independent existence. When did these 
algae begin their life on this globe ? It must have 
been in early geological time, — so long ago that 
when we attempt to reduce the intervening period 
between then and now to years, the mind staggers 
under the effort to grasp the vast interval. Prob- 
ably we never shall know when they first came. 
Their tender tissues are so poorly adapted to 
preservation that they might have existed from all 
time and never have left a trace among the fossils 
to testify as to their being. If one is ever found 
here or there among the pages of the rocky 
record, it will be simply by rare good luck. That 
they began life exclusively as water-plants there 
can be no doubt. Now they are, in one form or an- 
other, present everywhere in places where sunlight 
and dampness exist. Often either the mature alga 
or its spore is caught up by the wind and carried 
away to a pond, or, it may be, to the limb of a 
tree, or possibly to a damp wall. It is often of small 
importance to the plant on which of these places 
the wind drops it. The chances are that it will 
grow, though to a certain extent the character of 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



223 



its growth, its final shape, may depend on the loca- 
tion which accident has given it. Freedom in a flow- 
ing stream, or even space on a damp wall, may allow 
it to grow into a chain of small cells, which at least 
serves to illustrate the first steps toward a compli- 
cated organism ; but let the fungal threads seize 
upon that stray cell or spor^, cramp its energy, and 
dwarf its growth, and throughout its whole career 
it may remain in the simplest form, — that of a 
single cell. Fed upon by a parasite, nothing can 
become so great or noble as when master of its 
own resources. Still, there is even for the impris- 
oned alga one honor: it does the best possible 
under the circumstances, and by yielding to an in- 
exorable fate, produces the lichen which in its own 
way serves many useful purposes. More than 
once the lichens of Arctic regions have furnished 
food to starving men. And habitually they are 
the staple food of the Laplanders' reindeer in 
winter. There is much more which one might 
say even of so inconspicuous a group of plants as 
the lichens, all of which, too, would be suggested 
by the yellow-capped specimen we found on the 
trees by the bay-side ; but this is not a treatise on 
botany. 



226 VACATION CRUISING IN 

The vessels seen on the Delaware are as char- 
acteristic of their work as any vehicles seen on 
land can be. You may recognize the oyster-boats 
not more by the large black figures on their main- 
sails, than by their shoal, sharp character. Then, 
here and there you meet one of the canal schooners 
with short bowsprit and with masts made to lower. 
They have high, straight sides, but little shoulder, 
and are about as hideous models as one can see 
anywhere. Besides this, they are dangerous in 
heavy weather. There still linger a few of* the 
sloops built thirty years ago as freighters. They 
have great beam, light draught, and immense 
spars, with not a trace of the clipper-bow. The 
type seems to be disappearing very fast, only 
lingering in the form of sloops destined to carry 
stones or other equally heavy material. The hay- 
vessel, when you see her loaded, is a phenomenon. 
The illustration shows one I found lying along- 
side a " Jersey marsh." A person might well ask 
whether those who sailed in her had any remem- 
brance of what " centre of gravity" meant. Two 
days after the picture was taken she passed down 
Maurice River. Her deck-load of hay was then so 
high that the boom and sail could just clear it^ — 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



227 



that is, the hay was about twice as high as the pic- 
ture shows. It was a threatening evening when 
she went out into the bay. Fortunately she found 
a quiet bit of water behind the Egg Island light, 
and there awaited calmer weather. I have seen 
these great masses out where the water was so 
rough that I could hardly help inquiring whether 
the law of gravitation was suspended in their 
favor ; if it was not, then what force kept them 
from capsizing? The disparity in size between 
the hay and the vessel was so great as to call to 
mind the Hindoo notion that the earth was carried 
on the back of a tortoise. 

These large three-masted schooners which are 
now so common, but a few years back were almost 
a novelty. Coasting appears to be their chief oc- 
cupation, not because they are unable to under- 
take longer voyages, — for they could circum- 
navigate the globe, — but because the increased 
coastwise trade of the nation has grown enough 
to give occupation to that large and enterprising 
fleet. At the same time, too, our railroads have 
largely increased their own tonnage. Day after day, 
as we lay in, or near Salem Creek, we could see 
the Reading steam colliers passing up and down. 



228 VACATION CRUISING IN 

Probably there were on the average daily two each 
way that passed in the day-time. Besides them, 
however, there was a fleet of these large schoon- 
ers engaged also in coal-carrying. Ten years ago a 
schooner of over three hundred tons was regarded 
as a large vessel ; now it is not unusual to find 
one three times that size. In fact, it is said to 
be hardly worth while for a vessel of less than five 
hundred tons to attempt to compete in the carry- 
ing trade to any important port. 

So far as we could see, the American Line 
(proper) of four ships were the only steamers 
going to Europe that carried the American flag. 
Not a day passed, however, that several large 
foreign steamers, bound in, or out, did not go by. 
They were mostly of that unpopular class known 
to sailors as " ocean tramps," — that is, they be- 
longed to no regular line, and were bound to no 
regular port, but took whatever offered and to 
whatever destination it was consigned, provid- 
ing it paid. Of course, they were mainly Eng- 
lish. 

There is, in the abstract, something very fasci- 
nating in the idea of " ocean tramping," — that is, 
in going where one wills, as a citizen of the world. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



229 



But looked at from a practical, patriotic, or selfish 
stand-point, those same tramps are, or ought to 
be, to every American the objects of utter abom- 
ination. 

Their large aggregate tonnage represents just 
so much of our own products taken hence by- 
others, when we should carry most of it in our 
own vessels. They represent fearful odds against 
ourselves in any contest we might have with a 
foreign power. They indicate how many seamen 
some other nation has, and how few we soon will 
have, if we continue to extend all aid and comfort 
to foreign vessels. They tell of our decline as a 
naval power, and of all that is implied in possible 
marine dominion. 

Aside from the direct importance as a means 
of living to a considerable portion of our popula- 
tion, foreign trading in our own ships is still, and 
always has been, justly regarded as furnishing a 
school where, in time of peace, we should train 
and encourage those who were to uphold the 
honor of the flag on the high seas in time of war. 
Even yet, in an emergency, just a few such char- 
acters as Paul Jones might be sharp thorns in an 
enemy's side that would require a good many 



230 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



vessels to be kept in the safe shelter of home 
waters by a foe. 

Finding fault is a sorry feature in any book. 
Still, it may not be regarded as unpardonable to 
ask how long before the assembled wisdom of the 
nation, meeting in Washington, can devise some 
means of encouraging home maritime enterprise ? 
The lost industry and the lost revenue should be 
restored to us. It is probably a safe political prin- 
ciple to act upon, that every productive interest 
or business should be made as large and as per- 
manent as possible. Passing up and down the 
Delaware, I see the great ship-yard of Roach, at 
Chester. It alone has, since 1871, turned out 
over one hundred and sixty-seven thousand tons 
of carrying capacity in the vessels built there. 
What would be the effect upon the nation, if this 
and the other well-known yards along the same 
stream were furnished constant employment in 
building vessels for our own sailors to carry our 
own produce to foreign marts ? 

Without indorsing or denying the validity of 
the arguments, I insert the following from the 
New York Herald of December 28th, 1883. If 
XhQ facts are as stated, they alone should awaken 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



231 



the most serious thought, whatever be the remedy 
required ; 

In pursuance of the same subject the following is a passage 
from the interview with Mr. Grace : 

" What influence has the tariff on American shipping ?" 

" It has done all in its power to destroy it. In 1855, 75 
per cent, of our carrying trade was done in our own ships. 
I have not a dollar invested in shipping, and cannot therefore be 
accused of partiality in the matter. Well, when our civil war 
broke out our merchants in self-defence sold out or put their ships 
under foreign flags. When the war closed we found ourselves 
under a law forbidding us to buy our ships back, or to have any 
ships whatever except such as we built here ourselves. Our com- 
merce then began to dwindle. In 1867 we had but 34 per cent, 
of the carrying trade, in 1878 we had 22 per cent,, in 1880 we 
had 17 per cent., in 1881 we had 16 per cent., and if we keep on 
as we have begun we will soon have to hire foreign vessels to dis- 
play an American ensign for us, in order to assure the world that 
there was once an American flag upon the high seas." 

" Do you think we can ever build ships here?" 

" Yes, and iron ones, too, if you will only abolish the duties on- 
all the materials that enter into a. ship. It may surprise you to 
know that at this moment I have on hand a contract to have a 
couple of American steamers built for South American rivers. 
Now, we cannot build these steamers as cheaply as they can on 
the Clyde. Everything we use is taxed so highly that it would be 
absurd to hope to do so. The duty on hemp and tow, for instance, 
is ^20 a ton ; the duties on chemicals and stuffs that go into paints 
are from 20 to 25 per cent. ; iron is taxed from 60 to 75 per cent. ; 



232 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



steel, 45 per cent, now; machinery and tools pay a duty of 45 per 
cent. ; copper pays nearly ^90 a ton duty. In short, if you run 
over a ship from truck to keelson, you can hardly touch an article 
that is not made dearer by our protective tariflf." * 



* This abstract is reliable beyond question, and comes from the 
American of January 26th, 1884. The tonnage list from 1874 
down makes a sad showing. 

Among the details furnished by the report from the Bureau of 
Statistics upon the commerce and navigation of the United States 
for 1883 are those relating to the ship-building of the country last 
year. They show that there were constructed in all 126S vessels 
of all sorts, with a tonnage of 265,429.91 tons. Of this number, 
829 were sailing- and 439 steam-vessels; 881 were built on the Atr 
lantic and Gulf coasts, 91 on the Pacific coast, 171 on the Northern 
lakes, and 125 on the Western rivers. The comparison made by 
this showing with that of other years is presented in the following 
table. It gives the number and tonnage of vessels of all classes. 



both sail and steam, built 

Years. 
1874 

1875 
1876 

1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
1883 



n the United States in the years stated 


Number. Tonnage. 






. 2147 432,725 






I30I 297,638 






. III2 203,585 






1029 176,591 






1258 235,503 






1 132 193,030 






902 157,409 






1 1 08 280,458 






1371 282,269 






1268 265,429 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



233 



What we want first of all is a hearing of the 
facts throughout the land ; their statement should 
not be limited to Washington. The sooner they 
are everywhere known, the sooner will a remedy 
grow out of public pressure. " The power behind 
the throne" is here, if anywhere, "mightier than 
the throne." This much is clear, that when 
there are so many foreign vessels engaged in 
our trade, and so few of our own, something is 
wrong which should bejnade right. 

Aside from this legitimate discontent with the 
existing condition, on the nation's account, Phila- 
delphians might be pardoned for much dissatisfac- 
tion on their own account. Granting the fact that 
New York's easy access to the ocean has placed 
her ahead of all competition as the chief port 
of the nation, yet as a great manufacturing city, 
whose growth and prosperity will be largely meas- 
ured by the condition of the Delaware River, 
Philadelphia can hardly be long contented with 

The whole number of iron vessels built in the United States in 
1883 was 35, of which only one was a sailing-vessel. These were 
nearly all built at the yards along the Delaware, — twenty-three at 
Philadelphia and Chester, eight at Wilmington, — the others coming, 
one from Baltimore, one from Buffalo, and two from New York. 
20* 



234 VACATION CRUISING IN 

the wretched channels in the stream between her- 
self and the ocean. A better idea of Philadel- 
phia's claims in this respect may be had on re- 
membering that the last (tenth) census places her 
invested manufacturing capital at ;^i 87, 148,857, 
yielding a product to the value of ;^324,342,955. 
The only classes who can in any way be content 
with such narrow water-ways are pilots and tug- 
boat owners, and we are willing to credit them with 
an honest desire to see wider and deeper channels. 
Besides the other evident signs of suffering which 
Philadelphia's commerce shows, comes (at latest 
hour) the rumor that several of her tug-boats are 
to be taken (for want of remunerative employ- 
ment in the Delaware) to New York. It should 
also be said (in an undertone) that so long as our 
government is willing to leave New York Harbor 
in its present defenceless condition, so open to 
foes, it should be the more unwilling to leave the 
next important sea-port so difficult of access by 
friends. 

There was, but a few years ago, a righteous in- 
dignation throughout the country over the vast 
sum squandered in improving inland, unnavigable 
streams. The fault lay, not in the sum appro- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 235 

priated, so much, as in the use to be made of it. 
There are scores of places in the Delaware where 
it would, in the long run, be a true economy to 
expend more than the most liberal Congress has 
ever granted for it. 

The wrecks inside, or in sight of, the Delaware 
Breakwater are eloquent witnesses to the insuffi- 
ciency of what has been done there. The next 
generation will wonder that it was reserved for 
it to afford at that point something better than 
a snare for the storm-stayed mariner. Shoals and 
wrecks have often gone too long unbuoyed. In 
Maurice River Cove, for a long time, a wreck, 
which was covered at high-water and partly un- 
covered at low-water, was left without anything 
to mark the spot. Yet, during all that time, it 
was a danger to the small "strange craft" that 
might be in that neighborhood. That no lives 
or vessels were lost (if there were none) on that 
wreck was less by the grace of the government 
than by the grace of God. It is now buoyed. 

Then, again, take the channel for small craft, 
which exists close by Egg Island light, into 
Maurice River Cove ; there is nothing to mark 
that. To assume, which is true, that but few 



236 VACATION CRUISING IN 

Strangers use the channel, hardly diminishes the 
responsibility of the government, for more would 
use it, if it were marked, and in heavy weather it 
is often more than a convenient short-cut into 
Maurice River harbor. Our charts are drawn up 
too largely without regard to the wants of small 
craft. The entrances to unimportant harbors 
should be laid down more clearly and more fre- 
quently than they are. It is true that, from 
choice, such places are seldom visited by 
strangers; yet it is also just as true that they 
would be much more frequently utilized in times 
of danger if the stranger were sure how much 
water the channel of entrance afforded. Those 
blocked by shifting bars could easily be indicated. 
I am radical enough to wish that the most elo- 
quent opposer of liberal appropriations in behalf 
of life-saving stations, and of harbor opening and 
buoying, might find himself, in some one of the 
many wild December nights, out with the crew of 
a small trading-vessel off the shore between the 
mouths of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays ; 
I should like, then and there, to have his candid 
opinion as to whether Machipongo, Wacha- 
preague, Matomkin, Gargathy, and Chincoteague 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 237 

Inlets should not be watched, lighted, and buoyed 
in the best and most efficient manner known to 
modern science. Furthermore, after his conver- 
sion, I should like, if he were an honest man, to 
hear him make his plea in Washington in behalf 
of such and many other inlets along the coast 
into which small craft might " creep" and be safe. 
The statement that the channels leading to these 
inlets shift with every storm, instead of relieving 
our authorities of the responsibility of establishing 
an efficient watch, only adds weight to it. 

It may be a mere visionary notion, but I am 
convinced that among the many, now unthought-of, 
applications which the next generation will make 
of our newly-acquired knowledge of electricity 
will be to have buoys lighted by electric lights, 
which will mark the way into every such harbor 
on the coast, making their entrance thus as easy 
by night as by day. If so, in a better sense than 
we have yet understood the phrase, " the sea 
will give up its dead." 



238 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



CHAPTER V. 

WHO SHOULD GO CRUISING. 

There are many very hopeful signs now in our 
social life. It is the custom to look at the gloomy 
rather than the bright side of things ; but, with 
all this, our pessimist friends must admit that as a 
nation we are a larger, more influential, and prob- 
ably a better, people, than one hundred years ago. 
As to individuals, the average longevity has in- 
creased notably during the same period. These 
are very hopeful indications. 

Somehow, along with these changes, we can find 
other notable ones in social and in moral ideas. In 
fact, an idea must have something more than the 
savor of antiquity to make it venerable now. If 
it has outlived its usefulness, we cease to venerate 
it. Social ideas and political creeds have come 
to be looked at very much from the same stand- 
point, — as good things to threaten the existence of, 
as soon as they get strong enough to domineer. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 239 

I hold it to be an element of Christian faith that 
a man should care for his physical well-being, 
and can never think of those old ideas which 
led men to wrong the body, to benefit the soul, ex- 
cept as being monstrous. Henry Ward Beecher 
is said to have attributed his success in hfe to the 
fact that he was a good animal. If he ever made 
the remark, it was among the very wisest of his 
utterances. Emerson had hit upon the same ex- 
pression. Herbert Spencer, in the most absolute 
cold-blood, engendered by his philosophy, puts 
the idea in still more distinct and telling shape : 
" We hear a great deal about the ' vile body ;' and 
many are encouraged by the phrase to transgress 
the laws of health. But Nature quietly suppresses 
those who treat thus disrespectfully one of her 
highest products, and leaves the world to be 
peopled by the descendants of those who are not 
so foolish." Surely the above opinions come from 
a most unorthodox trio, so far as matters of faith 
could have been judged by the creeds of twenty 
years back. But just now these men are most re- 
spectable because they were among the pioneers 
in the special ruts in which our higher culture and 
civilization are running. During June, July, and 



240 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



August I have been upon the water, loitering here 
and there, as the wind and weather made necessary, 
or as my whims suggested. It was not simply 
waste time, but time devoted to search for physical 
vigor. And the result justified my course. In my 
boyhood, however, the most familiar moral maxim 
concerned the work which an unpopular individual, 
once an angel, found for idle hands to do. 

The cooler nights, as well as the matured corn- 
blades, which were yellow and dry, attested that 
the vacation was over, and that the work of a new 
college year must begin. All that remains is to 
take my boat to her winter-quarters. But before 
doing this, let us inquire, — 

Who should go Cruising? There is a con- 
stantly-increasing number of young and middle- 
aged men who, under the exactions of daily duty, 
find themselves each spring physically below par. 
Many of them cannot afford the cost of a pro- 
longed trip by the ordinary means of travel, even 
if it be undertaken in the interest of health. In- 
deed, it is by no means certain that such a vaca- 
tion would yield the largest return, for the simple 
reason that there is nothing for the individual to 
do, save to pay his bills and be taken care of Thus 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



241 



the stimulus of personal activity and of responsi- 
bility is missed, and with it, also, that complete 
change in mental occupation which a cruise is sure 
to afford, if it be such as I have tried to describe. 

The essential substratum upon which health 
must rest is muscular exertion. Muscular fibre 
comes only when earned. However valuable as 
aids, I doubt whether all the tonics of the shops, 
alone, ever created an ounce of muscle. Cruising 
affords not only the incentive to, but the opportu- 
nity for, healthful exercise. 

The trips I have described were made in a small 
vessel (six tons). A party of, say, four congenial 
companions could make such, or more distant ones, 
in a larger boat, spending a month in doing so, 
and, after paying for the vessel, hiring a captain 
and a cook, purchasing the provisions, still find 
that the expense for each man did not exceed 
fifty dollars for the whole trip. They could do 
this, I have said, if they were congenial com- 
panions. If they were not, the first week would 
probably end the cruise. Is there any other way 
in which so much health and pleasure could be 
had for so small a sum ? 

Probably this never would have been written 



242 VACATION CRUISING IN 

but from the fact that no one here has yet tried 
to write up a cruise as the author of " Rob Roy 
on the Jordan" has done for England. That it 
was needed in that water-loving land, and that 
it was acceptable, is shown from the fact that 
the book speedily passed through several edi- 
tions. No such success is anticipated for this 
effort. It will have accomplished its work if it 
stimulates some one else to do better. 

Who should not go Cruising? First, those 
who expect nothing but comfort, and who can- 
not endure plain living, or those to whom monoto- 
nous drifting one day, with possibly a tempest- 
tossing the next, is a greater annoyance than a 
week of pleasant sailing and free, open-air life can 
compensate for. Second, those whose education 
has been so neglected that they have never been 
taught to enjoy exposure for the manhood which 
it brings. This feeling is to some a natural gift, 
or, if you prefer, an unconquerable longing; to 
others it must be an acquisition. Physicians know 
that a very great trouble they have in dealing with 
ailing ones is, that to order them to a camp or to 
a cruise, would be to make life so intolerable that 
no good could come of it. Hence, then, in the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 243 

interest of health, it is part of a liberal education 
to love the winds and the waves, as well as the 
mountain-glens. The most profound thinker of 
this age says, when in one of his lighter moods, 
" Exclusive devotion to work has the result that 
amusements cease to please ; and, when relaxation 
becomes imperative, life becomes dreary from lack 
of its sole interest, — the interest in business. Life 
is not for learning, nor is life for working, but 
learning and working are for life." An early and 
a retained fondness for yachting and for angling 
has prolonged, no one knows how many years, 
Herbert Spencer's active, useful career. 

There is a third class who should not go cruising. 
I mean such as enjoy being weak, — those creatures 
to whom bronzed skins and excessive vitality are 
an abomination. To such we would say. Stay at 
home, by all means ! In the whole world out of 
doors there is no place for you. 

" Still breathe we this high air with rapture, still 
See earth dilated to a palace large, 
Roofed with blue bravery of the cloud-sailed sky." 

A fourth class should be named as unfit for 
cruising, — those who are confirmed invalids, who 



244 VACATION CRUISING IN 

have passed the point at which they can make 
strength faster than such a vacation, or such an 
occupation, would use it. To advise these to leave 
comfortable homes is a moral wrong which admits 
of no justification. 

Within a few years " the canoe" has awakened 
a profound interest in the United States. The 
constantly-increasing number of those who yield 
each summer to the fascination of the paddle 
shows that there must be, as we know there is, 
infinite pleasure in skimming our inland waters. 
Nothing that has been written in advocacy of 
yachting is to be construed as against " canoeing." 
They belong together as forms of the same recre- 
ation, each having its sphere, and each yielding a 
full return for the time and money expended, 
providing discretion rules the individual. 

Caution : Cruising in fresh water ^ remember your 
quinine-bottle. In the South, whether on fresh or 
salt water y keep in mind the same injunction. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 245 



CHAPTER VI. 

TO WINTER-QUARTERS IN THE CHOPTANK. 

Nothing more clearly indicates the unsettled 
character of the human mind than that we tire of 
our pleasures. Nothing shows more strongly the 
discipline of life than the patience with which well- 
ordered minds toil on, until the hour comes when 
they may fairly enjoy the freedom of doing'as they 
will. I had waited and worked for my vacation. 
I enjoyed the pleasure it brought until, sated, I 
longed again for work. 

Salt air and water, physical labor and mental 
rest, had done much towards renewing my youth, 
and promised to do more. Even a yachtsman may 
realize that life has duties more important than 
cruising. Autumn was approaching, as the rus- 
set blades of corn plainly indicated. This meant 
work. 

On August 27th, when the tide began to ebb, 
21* 



246 VACATION CRUISING IN 

we heaved our anchor up and hoisted sail. The 
wind was as fair and as strong as we could wish. 
In an hour the sister-cities of Camden and Phila- 
delphia were receding from view. There appears 
to be a spell associated with the river from Cam- 
den to Chester, so far as my sailing is concerned. 
Save once, I do not remember ever to have had a 
fair wind for the whole distance ; on all previous 
occasions, it either died away entirely, or changed 
its direction. On the trip I now write of, it be- 
came weaker, then baffling, coming first from one 
quarter, and then from another. Four hours were 
consumed in reaching Chester. So we drifted 
with the tide until what was ebb, and in our favor, 
changed to flood, and opposed us. With this 
change there came just enough of wind, and from 
such a direction, as to keep hope alive, by setting 
us forward very slowly. It was ten o'clock at 
night before we were fairly inside of the canal at 
Delaware City. 

Tired and hungry and sleepy, after a very has- 
tily-prepared supper, the crew of the " Martha" laid 
down to await daylight. Nothing of ordinary 
gravity could have awakened us. In fact, it was 
not until next day, when we saw how roughly the 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



247 



little boat had been used, that we realized the 
force with which a large schooner ran into the 
yacht, while we slept. 

Accepting it as inevitable, I was glad to have 
my boat in the canal again, and on her way to the 
Chesapeake waters. This time we fared rather 
better than when we came through en route for 
the Delaware Bay ; though, where so much was 
changed, I was rather surprised to find the bad 
condition the canal was in at one point. Still, to 
do them the fullest measure of justice now, I am 
bound to say the employes were at work dredg- 
ing near where my boat found less water and 
more rock than safe navigation required. There 
is one set of men employed on the canal of whom 
I can speak, without any reserve, as being kind 
and disposed to render any service they could: 
I mean those on the tug-boats. Such, at least, is 
the statement I must make so far as my three 
trips entitle me to have an opinion. 

I think in early autumn a trip through the canal 
is far from uninteresting. Between locks — that is, 
when not too busy — there was much to interest an 
observer. The air of comfort and of prosperity 
about the farm-houses was very marked. The 



248 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



dykes and embankments on the eastern end sug- 
gested Holland, save that the Dutch had not 
covered it with red-roofed houses and lazy, long- 
armed windmills. The well-tilled corn-fields at- 
tested a vigorous, pushing community, just as 
strongly as the large peach-orchards suggested 
late frosts and high prices for their fruit each re- 
turning season. The canal itself was well filled 
with a thrifty growth of eel-grass. I have already 
alluded to its somewhat strange way of having 
the female flowers fertilized by the floating male 
flowers. This plant was in full bloom at the time 
of my previous trip. Its graceful, waving leaves 
are an interesting study as you see them in a 
moderately swift current. 

Out of the water, as well as in it, were sources 
of enjoyment. After passing Saint George's the 
country became more hilly. Two centuries of 
cultivation had only changed the surface, re- 
moving the trees and leaves, but substituting 
smaller growths and a dense sward. Save here 
and there, two feet below the surface, everything 
was exactly as left by natural forces. The cuts 
made by the canal revealed great deposits of 
gravel, with occasional large, water-worn stones. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS.' 249 

The very first glance told plainly enough that 
neither of these was made there, but that both 
had come as immigrants from remote parts. So far 
as their presence is concerned, there is no accepted 
hypothesis which is not wonderful enough. The 
first chapters of their wandering were written far 
back in the past, and they were separated from 
their birth-place with labor-throes, under which 
the whole region must have groaned. This may 
have been long before man appeared on earth. 
Whether they were carried to the spot where we 
now find them by single icebergs, floating over 
what is now dry land, or whether they were car- 
ried by the great glacial mass, which it is sup- 
posed once overspread the Northern United States, 
is a question geologists must determine. Prob- 
ably if one could remove the water from the Banks 
of Newfoundland, we should find just such rocks 
and gravel. These are supposed to have been car- 
ried there by bergs from the Arctic Ocean, and 
thawed loose when the ice came into the water 
warmed by the Gulf Stream. Humboldt has said 
" the forces of nature are practically illimitable." 
Nothing illustrates this more strikingly than an 
attempt to conceive of the power implied by 



250 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



glacial movement, when, over hill and down dale, 
the vast ice-fields, pressed upon from the north 
swept resistlessly and directly forward without 
regard to the trend of the hills which they ground 
under their weight. At all events, be the explana- 
tioil of the present position of the rocks and gravel 
on the line of the canal what it may, one thing is 
sure : they suggest travel, cold, and long-ago. 

There has been no frost since the peach-trees 
blossomed in early spring, yet we found the leaves 
were changing color in advance of the coming 
cold. They were a study, each having its own 
characteristic hue, and they have left to this hour 
the impressions then produced, photographed in 
my mind. The leaves have fallen, and their 
tender tissues are in decay, but the mental image 
is as fresh as ever. Thoughts often outlive the 
causes which produced them. Hence one might 
well suppose that, such "things of beauty" are 
naturally enough intended to be " a joy forever," 
and that the pleasures of the mind are equal in 
value to, and as legitimate as, those which spring 
from the product of the mint. What besides them 
do we take with us at last ? 

The Liquidambar, or sweet-gum, foliage, was 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



251 



red-brown, the sassafras was orange-red, and the 
tupelo was scarlet. Other shades, as those of the 
red oak and scarlet maple, and Ampelopsis, were 
appearing and blending with the more pronounced 
ones already named, to complete a perfect picture. 
Botanists do partly divest this of interest, when 
they remind us these bright colors are caused 
by simply a worthless residuum in the leaf, after 
all the important living colors have been removed. 
This may suggest that the summer's work is 
past, but then fancy only stretches forward to 
another spring, when warmth and shower will 
deck the same trees again, after the rest which 
autumn colors promise. I do not care to reduce 
life to mere chemical and vital force. It robs 
being of love, of poetry, of personal protection, 
and substitutes simply the chilling reign of objec- 
tive law. After all, in whatsoever new channel 
of evolution we start, or however far we drive 
back the bars which shut out the sunlight of ulti- 
mate truth, we do inevitably come at last to the 
unknowable and the infinite. If men are content 
with the comfort they derive from considering these 
in terms of physical force, I can find no fault with 
them, though I can claim that my dim notion of 



252 



VACATION CRUISING IN 



that power as a spirit is no less real than theirs, 
which regards it as force. 

The flowering fern {Osimtnda regalis), or, as it is 
better called, royal fern, mingled its delicate, peer- 
less foliage with that of the wild grape as they 
grew along the narrow line where land and water 
met. The vegetation on the canal banks taught 
me some lessons of interest concerning the dis- 
tribution of plants. Quei'ctis falcata, or Spanish 
oak, was no longer rare, though in Chester County 
(in Pennsylvania), but a few miles to the north, it 
is not common. The Liquidambar told the same 
tale. Larger generalizations still, come to light, 
when we read the history of the Scotch broom 
[Cytisus). This plant is a native of the sandy 
woods of Western Europe. How came it here ? 
Clearly, it was introduced by human agency along 
the lines of human traffic. It is a low, dark-green 
shrub, with a profusion of angular, slender, wiry 
branches, which compensate for lack of leaves. 
Its chief glory is the mass of large, bright-yellow 
flowers, which spring out from slender foot-stalks. 
On the southern bank of the canal it grew in all 
its rugged luxuriance. At Yorktown, too, it was 
about all that remained of British origin after 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 253 

Cornwallis left. It is, however, too firmly fixed on 
the dry, gravel hill-sides there, ever to abandon the 
position. Again I saw it flourishing on the gravel 
banks where the railroad cuts had been made 
above Chester, in Pennsylvania. In all these 
places it has come to remain, and to win, by its 
superior hardiness, a victory over our native plants. 
It is one of the naturally-selected which succeed 
in the struggle for existence. Just so, too, the 
wild carrot and the ox-eye daisy have done. But 
there is some principle of justice in the retribu- 
tion our American weeds, such as the common 
fleabane {Erigeron), are wreaking in European 
soil. 

There is, however, a broader meaning than ap- 
pears on the surface in these plant colonies, which 
become so strong in new soil as to crowd out 
the original flora. Its resemblance to human mi- 
gration and conquest is too plain to escape notice. 
Races of men and plants both are invigorated by 
change of home. Rotation of crops and rotation 
of races are associated in thoughtful minds. 

One might be expected to moralize when out 
on the Chesapeake, for there is inspiration in the 
region ; but think of ethics, or equity, or anything 



254 VACATION CRUISING IN 

else good or grand, rising out of the muddy waters 
of a canal ! It is absurd. 

No excuse is needed for introducing the ba- 
rometer again, as those who go down in small 
ships cannot be too well prepared, or too fully 
warned. When we left Philadelphia on Monday 
morning it stood in the cabin of the " Martha" at 
30.35 inches. On Tuesday morning, as we left the 
canal at Chesapeake City, it registered 30.25. The 
wind, which for a few hours had blown from the 
east, became again unsettled, — more so, even, than 
on the previous day. We did succeed in getting 
down Back Creek into Elk River, but with much 
difficulty. What was surprising enough was that 
in the open water, as we approached the bay, the 
wind was more baffling than in the river. Most 
of the time it came from the northeast. In an in- 
stant our sails would be taken " aback" by a west- 
erly wind. For two hours we sailed, first, " on the 
wind," then free ; then we had to trim our sails to 
meet the wind as it " bounced out upon us" from 
some new quarter. At one p.m. we were off Sassa- 
fras River. The barometer was still lower than 
in the morning. It now was beyond doubt that a 
storm was brewing. Still Pond and Worton Creek 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



255 



were soon passed, both tempting harbors; but 
we were sailing against time, and desirous of 
making as speedy a trip as possible. 

The wind was now strong, steady, and from the 
east, or possibly east-northeast. Hence, I made 
up my mind to follow the eastern shore down, and 
to abandon the idea of going into Magothy harbor 
for the night. So long as we had an off-shore 
wind, it was of small moment how hard it blew. 
'^y the time we reached (folchester Beach two ^ 
large schooners that had been chasing us all day 
passed us, on their way south._. They were carry- 
ing sail enough to crowd their scuppers under. 
My own little boat was fairly staggering from the 
canvas we made her carry. She never showed to 
better advantage. Every boat, like every man, 
has an individuality. I had become acquainted 
with mine, and whatever was in her I was by 
this time able to get out. Night caught us as we 
crossed the mouth of Chester River, and the wind 
then had moved more towards the south, so that 
we were obliged to take in some of the sheet. 
This, with the rough water in the mouth of the 
river, delayed us greatly. But we held our course 
down the eastern shore. By nine p.m. Kent Island 



256 VACATION CRUISING IN 

light became visible, and then we had a safe guide. 
It furnished a striking illustration of the rotundity 
of the earth : when we stood up, it was plainly- 
visible; when we sat down, the light could not be 
seen. Clearly, then, the height of a man made the 
difference by removing the intervening obstacle. 
Two hours later Sharp's Island light furnished 
another illustration of the same thing. 

From Kent Island light we had a tedious beat 
in, over the bar and " sunken island," to a com- 
fortable harbor near Poplar Island. We had to 
feel our way through the intense darkness, and it 
was well towards midnight before we came to 
anchor. In daytime this harbor is easily reached, 
and I am surprised that so few of our yachtsmen 
in light-draught boats frequent it. I have always 
found it a safe harbor in any weather. 

Our run for the day, after leaving the canal, was 
about seventy miles. 

By five A.M. we were up and off. The fog was 
as dense as it well could be. Fortunately, we had 
our bearings, and ran through the narrow channel 
between the mainland and the island without 
trouble. The tide at first was against us, but it 
turned as we entered the Choptank. It was, how- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 



257 



ever, a clear " beat" from the mouth of the river 
up to Cambridge, which we reached about one 
P.M. The barometer then stood at 30.15. 

Hardly were our sails down and everything 
made snug before the threatened storm burst. It 
reached us mainly as rain; elsewhere it came as 
wind. 

Here, then, is the lesson so well known to me- 
teorologists, but which I wish more and more to 
impress on my amateur friends, that whether above 
or below the mean, at the sea-shore, when it starts 
to go down rapidly^ a ^'falling barometer'^ means 
atmospheric disturbance ^ either wind or rain. 

This storm was general. And I here insert two 
newspaper notices to show it. The first is taken 
from the Philadelphia Public Ledger of September 

1st: 

THE LATEST NEWS. 

There was a violent storm on the Great Banks of Newfound- 
land, on Sunday last, which drove hundreds of dories away 
from their trawls. It is estimated that 100 dories and 80 men 
were lost. Scores of the dories were capsized, and the ocean 
was strewn with wreckage. 

The second extract is from the Philadelphia 
Evening Bulletin of August 30th : 

T 22* 



258 



VACATION CRUISING IN 
FIERCE WINDS. 

THE EXPERIENCES OF A STEAMER IN A CYCLONE. 

The New York Tribune of this morning says : " The steamer 
* Britannia,' Captain Jauffret, from Marseilles, with a cargo of fruit 
to Seager Brothers, arrived at Prentice's stores, Brooklyn, yester- 
day, with her sails and sail-covering carried away and her boats 
badly damaged, in conseqvience of a cyclone which struck the 
vessel on August 25th, in latitude 38 deg. 15 min., longitude 63 
deg. 10 min. Captain Jauffi-et said of his experience, — 

" ' I never before encountered such a storm. At 8 P.M. on 
August 24th. the atmosphere was calm, though heavy, and the ba- 
rometer stood at 30.2. The wind was southwest, but towards 
morning it shifted to south. I ordered all sails set, as I did not 
anticipate danger. At 6 A.M. the next day the sky began to 
darken, and the barometer at 7 A.M. had fallen to 29.4. Half an 
hour later a terrific gale suddenly struck us with the force of a 
vast volume of steam suddenly let loose, carr}ang the sails away 
and badly damaging the boats. The sky became black, and the 
heavens and the water seemed to mingle together. We could not 
see ten feet. We were thrown into a pitchy night in almost a 
moment of time. The men lashed themselves to the ship, and the 
35 passengers awaited the result in comparative calm. Indeed, 
officers and passengers both acted with wdnderful coolness. The 
vessel was placed under full steam, but this had no effect. She 
was completely at the mercy of the elements. The wind seemed 
to come from every direction at will, the water swirled over us, 
and the steamer was carried around with them. There was a 
terrific rumbling at the same time, which did not resemble any- 
thing I had heard before. In the mean time the rain fell in lor- 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 259 

rents. Indeed, it seemed as if all the powers of earth and air 
had 'combined to produce the most disastrous effect. The light- 
ning flashed vividly and appeared to leap from the waters to the 
clouds in a most erratic manner. The cyclone passed away as 
suddenly as it had come, the sky began to brighten, and the heavy 
sea fell away. In the height of the storm one of the marble slabs 
of the sideboard in the saloon was detached, and this struck 
Joseph Modul, the chief steward, inflicting injuries from which 
he died on the next day. He was buried at sea. The boatswain 
had two of his ribs broken, but is about now. The rest of the 
voyage was uneventful.' 

" The * Britannia' is of 1838 net tons burden, and she has a double 
bottom and double sides. For this reason Seager Brothers account 
for her standing the storm so well. She had 6000 boxes of fruit 
as cargo, and was only in ballast trim." 



August 29th will long be remembered at At- 
lantic City as the date of a fearfully destructive 
tidal-wave. 

During our fastest sailing at night, on our way 
down, we would occasionally run over a jelly- 
fish, which became, under the irritation, a beau- 
tiful ball of phosphorescent light. It is well 
known that this light, which is so striking, de- 
pends upon a variety of animals. Among the 
most perfect producers of it are the so-called 
Noctilucse, — microscopic animals which, when the 



26o VACATION CRUISING IN 

water is agitated by an oar, will leave behind the 
blade a blue or silver streak, or reveal themselves 
in bright drops of the same color, as they fall 
from the lifted oar. In the waters about Cape 
Cod I have often seen this condition of the water 
more marked than I ever observed it in Chesa- 
peake Bay. As a rule, the phosphorescence of 
the water is greater in warm than in cold lati- 
tudes, which fact Darwin attributes to the greater 
abundance of life in the tropical than in the polar 
seas. In some instances, however, he thought it 
came from particles of decaying organic matter, 
and that the ocean was thus purifying its waters. 
The words of Humboldt combine truth with 
poetry: '**... So also in the torrid zones, 
between the tropics, the ocean simultaneously 
develops light over a space of many thousand 
square miles. Here the magical effect of light 
is due to the forces of organic nature. Foaming 
with light, the eddying waves flash in phospho- 
rescent sparks over the wide expanse of waters 
where every scintillation is the vital manifestation 
of an invisible animal world." 



This ended the cruising of the " Martha" for 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS. 26 1 

the season. The stanch little sloop, now laid 
up for the winter in Cambridge harbor, awaits 
new duties in the coming season, — 1884. 

Who that reads Tarn o' Shanter can fail to 
see an overflowing genius in every line? Burns 
must have been placed among the poets, though 
he had written nothing save, — 

" But pleasures are like poppies spread, 
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snow falls in the river, 
A moment white, then melts forever ; 
Or like the borealis race. 
That flit ere you can point their place ; 
Or like the rainbow's lovely form 
Evanishing amid the storm." 

Though every idea there is a genuine reflec- 
tion from nature which inspired the poet, still, 
whei^ I look back over my three months of quiet 
cruising, those glowing lines do not express the 
facts to me. True, the pleasures departed with 
the days, but the memory of them remains as 
part of me ; and is as truly a mental treasure to 
me, as if derived from the pages of any author. 



262 VACATION CRUISING. 

Far more real and full is the stately verse of 
Tennyson, — 

" But in my spirit will I dwell, 
And dream my dream, and hold it true ; 
For tho' my lips may breath * Adieu !' 
I cannot think the thing * Farewell !" 



THE END. 



